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Electricity is critical infrastructure and the same thing could happen anywhere. If you had a multi-day electric or gas outage in New York in mid-January, you'd

Electricity is critical infrastructure and the same thing could happen anywhere. If you had a multi-day electric or gas outage in New York in mid-January, you'd see exactly the same thing happen.

JimtheCoder 3y ago
Maybe not? People could use things like blankets to stay warm and light things on fire for heat. I think they did this before electricity...a relatively new invention. What is the equivalent for cooling off that doesn't require electricity? In Phoenix, specifically...
- fooker 3y ago
  People have lived in hot and dry places without electricity for thousands of years. You drink a lot of water, don't go out in the sun, cover your body with proper clothes (counterintuitively), hang wet fabric in small ventilators, use hand fans, stay in a basement/underground/lower floors of a building, cover your roof with thick organic material.
  - Scoundreller 3y ago
    And shutters on your windows that actually close and block out the sun. One day the USA will adopt such technology.
    - yamtaddle 3y ago
      The vast majority of the extant housing in the US was built for a world with cheap energy and air conditioning. Take away the AC and it needs extensive refitting to even be kinda habitable. [EDIT] OK, that's overstating it in the North. Newer houses & apartments sans AC up there would just mean a couple dozen nights per year sleeping outside, and having to be way more diligent about fighting mold and mildew. Tolerable, but not great. The South, though....
- nradov 3y ago
  Texans literally froze to death during a utility outage in 2021. Most modern homes have no place to light a fire for heat, and blankets only do so much. https://www.foxweather.com/extreme-weather/great-texas-freeze-killed-nearly-3-times-more-people-than-hurricane-harvey https://www.foxweather.com/extreme-weather/great-texas-freez...
  - cozzyd 3y ago
    I've slept in a tent on the Greenland ice sheet. If you have proper bedding, it's fine... (Maybe people in Texas don't have thick blankets or sleeping bags, and presumably live in homes with substandard insulation?)
gdubs 3y ago
I'd be curious to see a side by side comparison, but I've always found it harder to cool down than to warm up.
lemmiwinks 3y ago
> If you had a multi-day electric or gas outage in New York in mid-January, you'd see exactly the same thing happen. No: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1998_North_American_ice_storm https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1998_North_American_... Multiple weeks without electricity for some, but only 34 deaths. (And in Quebec, most people heat their houses with electricity) "Fun" fact: In Montreal, more people die in heatwaves than of cold. Unless you're a drunk hobo that is: because they are shelters in winter, but old people die in summer in crammed apartments without AC.
- chrismcb 3y ago
  Washington Post send to think that child is far more freaky. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/hot-cold-extreme-temperature-deaths/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interacti...
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
fzeroracer 3y ago
Nope. I was in Austin during the winter storm in 2021 and lost power for a fair chunk of it plus was stranded in my apartment with little food. There was nothing I could do as the roads were filled with snow and ice and the city had no infrastructure for clearing the roads or dealing with the problems. In comparison if something happened in my home town of Bellingham on the west coast, they'd be prepared by having the roads salted, making it reasonably clear and that I would've still be able to get supplies even in the case of a blackout.

Electricity is critical infrastructure and the same thing could happen anywhere. If you had a multi-day electric or gas outage in New York in mid-January, you'd see exactly the same thing happen.

JimtheCoder 3y ago

Maybe not? People could use things like blankets to stay warm and light things on fire for heat. I think they did this before electricity...a relatively new invention. What is the equivalent for cooling off that doesn't require electricity? In Phoenix, specifically...

fooker 3y ago
People have lived in hot and dry places without electricity for thousands of years. You drink a lot of water, don't go out in the sun, cover your body with proper clothes (counterintuitively), hang wet fabric in small ventilators, use hand fans, stay in a basement/underground/lower floors of a building, cover your roof with thick organic material.
- Scoundreller 3y ago
  And shutters on your windows that actually close and block out the sun. One day the USA will adopt such technology.
  - yamtaddle 3y ago
    The vast majority of the extant housing in the US was built for a world with cheap energy and air conditioning. Take away the AC and it needs extensive refitting to even be kinda habitable. [EDIT] OK, that's overstating it in the North. Newer houses & apartments sans AC up there would just mean a couple dozen nights per year sleeping outside, and having to be way more diligent about fighting mold and mildew. Tolerable, but not great. The South, though....
nradov 3y ago
Texans literally froze to death during a utility outage in 2021. Most modern homes have no place to light a fire for heat, and blankets only do so much. https://www.foxweather.com/extreme-weather/great-texas-freeze-killed-nearly-3-times-more-people-than-hurricane-harvey https://www.foxweather.com/extreme-weather/great-texas-freez...
- cozzyd 3y ago
  I've slept in a tent on the Greenland ice sheet. If you have proper bedding, it's fine... (Maybe people in Texas don't have thick blankets or sleeping bags, and presumably live in homes with substandard insulation?)

gdubs 3y ago

I'd be curious to see a side by side comparison, but I've always found it harder to cool down than to warm up.

lemmiwinks 3y ago

> If you had a multi-day electric or gas outage in New York in mid-January, you'd see exactly the same thing happen. No: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1998_North_American_ice_storm https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1998_North_American_... Multiple weeks without electricity for some, but only 34 deaths. (And in Quebec, most people heat their houses with electricity) "Fun" fact: In Montreal, more people die in heatwaves than of cold. Unless you're a drunk hobo that is: because they are shelters in winter, but old people die in summer in crammed apartments without AC.

chrismcb 3y ago
Washington Post send to think that child is far more freaky. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/hot-cold-extreme-temperature-deaths/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interacti...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

fzeroracer 3y ago

Nope. I was in Austin during the winter storm in 2021 and lost power for a fair chunk of it plus was stranded in my apartment with little food. There was nothing I could do as the roads were filled with snow and ice and the city had no infrastructure for clearing the roads or dealing with the problems. In comparison if something happened in my home town of Bellingham on the west coast, they'd be prepared by having the roads salted, making it reasonably clear and that I would've still be able to get supplies even in the case of a blackout.