Disaster Area by Julie Whitefeather
Aug 29, 2007 00:57:15
Submitted by Brent on Aug 29, 2007 00:57:15 CST (comments: 2)
Aug 29, 2007 00:57:15
 There have been many firsts for me since I have been involved in the MMO market. But this has been a first among firsts. This has been the first time I have ever played WOW in a disaster area. Last week, about 3:00 pm in the afternoon the area of the state I live in was issued tornado warnings by the U.S. Weather Service. Shortly thereafter a microburst whipped through the communities I live in. I happened in the course of a few minutes. The winds were so strong that trees were ripped out of the ground by their roots and thrown into streets and houses. One of the trees on our property was sheered in half - the top half nearly missing the building. Shortly thereafter the flooding started. The power went out not long after that. Fortunately, some time ago a flood gate was installed between us and the sewer systems - or we would have flooded as well. You know it's bad when the estimation of restoring power by ComEd is simply "many days". My first thought was how will we run the oxygen maker (we do elder care). By the time I came home form work I found power lines running through the hallways. Not only was my first thought "how will we run the oxygen maker" it was our neighbors first thought as well. He proceeded to connect our home to his generator - and four other homes in the area as well. This was enough for the basic necessities - the oxygen maker and the refrigerator. The rain continued for days, as well as the power outage. Then came the weekend, and my birthday. We still were not able to use the water for fear of flooding. But the rain had stopped and things had settled down. It promised to be a long weekend of waiting for water to recede and power to be restored - a long BORING weekend. That was when I asked for a bit of divine providence. "It sure would be a nice birthday present to have some power to get online" I said aloud. Within FIVE MINUTES, my friends, the same neighbor who had hooked up our oxygen machine to his generator came to the back door. He told us his neighbor on the other side had bought his own generator and we could hook up anything we wanted to the power line now. Yes - ANYTHING WE WANTED - including WOW. I shouted "wooo hoooo" and everyone looked at me like I was nuts. Everyone that is, except Mother Superior, who also plays WOW. The waters receded. We got out power back on after five days. And in the mean time, we had a small MMO island in the middle of a disaster area. See you online, - Julie Whitefeather |
Submitted by Brent on Aug 29, 2007 00:57:15 CST (comments: 2)
Comments:
'divine providence' by hallower
Submitted on 2007-08-29 12:20:15 CST
Awesome story. And a belated Happy Birthday.
'Small favors' by Scott
Submitted on 2007-08-29 14:45:23 CST
Apparently somebody was looking out for you on your birthday (congrats).
Just a little advice, be very careful running your computer off power from a generator due to voltage spikes. I highly recommend getting a surge protector or UPS with Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR) to protect your electronics.
I use to take a laptop with me on trips to my families hunting lodge in Alaska and had to lecture my father who had his Toshiba laptop damaged from the cabin's generator the previous year.
RSS - Blog/Articles