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After hurricane Maria in September 2017 the entire island of Puerto Rico was without power. There was nowhere you could drive out of the blackout area since it

by jjav 7y ago

After hurricane Maria in September 2017 the entire island of Puerto Rico was without power. There was nowhere you could drive out of the blackout area since it was everywhere. A few luckier people got power back in one to two weeks, a small minority. My family in the greater metro area of San Juan got power back after two months. Friends in smaller cities only got power after three to five months. There are communities in the mountains which still don't have power today, almost two years later. If you haven't lived through anything like this, it is a useful mental exercise to think how you'd prepare for it.

js2 7y ago
I can't imagine. I lived through Hurricane Andrew. I think it was a few weeks before power was restored, but we found ourselves a generator within 48 hours. We used it to run our refrigerator at home in the evenings, and my dad's business (a 1-hour photo lab) during the day. It was august, so it must've been miserably hot, but I don't remember that much. What I do remember is how traffic functioned in Miami without traffic lights. There obviously weren't enough police to direct traffic at every intersection, so what happened was that a random driver who had a passenger would have the passenger jump out and direct traffic till his car got through and someone else volunteered to take over. This happened organically at many intersections, and it was really amazing to see.
kzrdude 7y ago
Do you know any write-ups of personal stories from this on the web? Something like the blog post in this hacker news post.
- jjav 7y ago
  There is so much, but difficult to find any one link to summarize.. After a bit of searching found this page which is a similar blog-style page except has snippets from many different people. In Spanish. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/09/209947/huracan-maria-aniversario-puerto-rico-experiencia-mujeres https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/09/209947/huracan-mari... For English language coverage, search for videos by David Begnaud of CBS News who was on site and provided excellent reporting.

by jjav 7y ago

js2 7y ago

I can't imagine. I lived through Hurricane Andrew. I think it was a few weeks before power was restored, but we found ourselves a generator within 48 hours. We used it to run our refrigerator at home in the evenings, and my dad's business (a 1-hour photo lab) during the day. It was august, so it must've been miserably hot, but I don't remember that much. What I do remember is how traffic functioned in Miami without traffic lights. There obviously weren't enough police to direct traffic at every intersection, so what happened was that a random driver who had a passenger would have the passenger jump out and direct traffic till his car got through and someone else volunteered to take over. This happened organically at many intersections, and it was really amazing to see.

kzrdude 7y ago

Do you know any write-ups of personal stories from this on the web? Something like the blog post in this hacker news post.

jjav 7y ago
There is so much, but difficult to find any one link to summarize.. After a bit of searching found this page which is a similar blog-style page except has snippets from many different people. In Spanish. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/09/209947/huracan-maria-aniversario-puerto-rico-experiencia-mujeres https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/09/209947/huracan-mari... For English language coverage, search for videos by David Begnaud of CBS News who was on site and provided excellent reporting.