Blackout/Power Outage 2012

On Friday night, June 29th, a terrible storm ripped through the Mid Atlantic region of the eastern United States.  High winds, torrential rains, and lightning storms raged through the sky.  I was online when the storm initially hit, and didn't even hear it above the buzz of my AC unit, which I had JUST bought earlier that day.  Earlier in the day, it had been very hot and unbearably humid; there weren't previously any calls for storms that evening.  When my door keep flying open because of the high winds, I rushed to close the open windows that I had in my apartment, keeping the rain water from getting inside.  I then went back into my room, and continued my online endeavors.  I had finally finished up by about 10 minutes to eleven o'clock, shut down my computer, and turned off my lights, hoping to get a nice cool good night's sleep for once.

Then....the power went out at around 11:15pm or 11:20pm.

I was PISSED!!!!

My AC unit went out...then the lights from my clock radio went dark.

Okay...that's not normal.

My initial impulse was that I had blow a circuit with the AC unit, but quickly dismissed that when my clock radio went out.  Then I thought...maybe I blew a fuse just in my bedroom...?  I went into my living room, and tried to turn on the TV.

No dice...

I then went to the kitchen to see if my fridge was still working.
Nope....light was out.  It wasn't humming

Damn....I was caught in the middle of a blackout.  Without air conditioning.  In the middle of a heatwave.

F**K!!!!!!!!
@%#$^}|~*!!!!!!

Eventually, I was without power for about two days.  I had to suffer through the heat, and lack of access to food and liquids.  I had to drink tap water to stay hydrated.  My power finally came back Sunday afternoon.  Needless to say I was ecstatic.  Finally.....AIR!!!!!

I must admit...at the same time...I felt really demoralized after my power came back, looking at the aftermath of the blackout.   As a proud member of the 'conscious' community, and a community/cultural activist, I felt foolish at the level of powerlessness that I felt individually, and the utter unpreparedness of the so-called 'conscious' community overall.  We were totally ill-prepared to handle a situation like this.  Where were our relief efforts to save our struggling community members, suffering without power, food, and water? Are we even organized to handle such an event?  All we have to do is look at the example of Hurricane Katrina and Rita to see how unprepared we are to handle a natural disaster.

Is there anyone out there in the Pan Africanist/Black Nationalist community that has a contingency plan in place for an event such as this?  And, I don't mean an individual plan, just for themselves or their immediate family.  What sort of plans do we have in place to help our community if another (natural) disaster such as the blackout were to occur again?   Forget FEMA and the Red Cross; what plans have we developed to protect our people if such an event were to happen again, or any natural disaster?

Seeing situations like these arising just helps to reinforce the reason why a lot of people in our community don't really respect the 'conscious' community.  We spew all this rhetoric, and make all of these strong statements....but when a situation like the blackout arises...we're caught with our pants down just as much as the Average Joe.  We weren't any more prepared than the so-called 'unconscious' members of our community, at least, not on any mass scale.  We need to improve on that, and do more showing and proving.  I think that too many of us in the so-called 'conscious' community become arrogant and elitist just because we know a little something, something.  How about we start putting some of that talk into practical application?


Organize.
Strategize.
MOBILIZE!!!

Uhuru Sase, y paz