as a working class person, my entire life

After hurricane Helene we didn’t have electricity for 6 days. But I’ve been completely powerless for 34 years.

When I was eleven (1988) we moved to a rural property with no power. I left when I was eighteen… So… Seven years.

I’m still waiting for power over my life

After the power company (PG&E) got blamed and sued for some big fires that destroyed entire neighborhoods in 2017, they got salty and decided to cut power whenever there were high winds predicted during red flag (high fire risk) days. The worst one was 15 days. I’m on a well with an electric pump, so there was no water for those days either.

Also, I lived off grid for about four years with only enough solar to either charge a phone (no service though) or run a light bulb in the evening. I did go to town to check my email and read the news every week or so.

3 weeks without mains. Bad storm, very rural. We ran a generator to keep the freezer and fridge going. Had antique tools to work with so we were fine. Thankfully it took place in the summer.

As another commenter mentioned, longest period of time without electricity for me would be about two weeks in Algonquin Park, Ontario Canada. A couple of our canoe trips were ten days at least… the drive back to civilization is always a bit strange, 40 km/h feels really fast at first, it’s a bit scary getting onto the highway and the lights everywhere are very distracting for the first couple of hours.

Longest period of time at home would be about two weeks without power during the 1998 Ice Storm. We had a wood stove, so we did okay for heat and managed to cook on the flat metal top. It hit in several rainstorms over the course of about a week, and took years to clean up afterwards. Power went out on the first night and didn’t come back on until at least ten days later, not sure exactly now.

I remember being 8 years old, watching the rain come down in waves, gently, onto bent over tree branches that were sparkling as they swayed back and forth in the wind, thousands of gems on the tips of the branches, reflecting orange glow from the streetlight beside.

By the third day of that, there was cannonfire in the back fourty. Branches were breaking under the weight, falling to earth with a thundering “boom” as they made the 2” sheet of ice over the snow vibrate like a giant’s drum. A tinkling sound, like tiny bells, would follow as the shards bounced upwards and settled across the surface.

Strange times. Lots of candles. Gets boring at night when you start running out. Wasn’t allowed to go outside for a long time because of the falling branches.

When we finally did go outside, I almost died because we went sledding. Turns out plastic “crazy carpets” go, well, crazy fast on that kind of ice. Luckily I went through a patch of small trees instead of smashing into one of the big ones. In retrospect, we picked a really bad spot to go sledding. Learned pretty quick that just sliding down on our bellies like otters worked better. Didn’t go back to school until almost the end of January so we had lots of time to practice, it was great.

The bush was a mess for years afterwards. Just a tangle of fallen branches and small trees shooting up between. The rabbit population exploded as a result, it was perfect habitat out there for them. I found a patch of snow at the end of June that year, hidden away under a whole pile of pine branches. We tapped the trees that spring but shouldn’t have even bothered, we only got about 5 litres of maple syrup instead of the usual 20 to 25

2 weeks. I resolved it by tracking the exact area of the power outage and calling the power company:

“Look, I know it doesn’t do any good to call you guys and go ‘wah! my powers out!’ so here’s the deal, it’s out from x street to y street East to West, and from 0 street to z street North to South.”

“WOW! That’s a big area!”

“Yes it is.”

Power was back on the next day.

9 days due to a hurricane. Internet was out for another 5. I also use a CPAP to sleep, so I was mostly awake until we got our generator working on day 3.

7~8 days while camping (boy scout winter camp).

1~2 during a bad power outage.

3 weeks after Wilma.

I spent the first 2 years of my life with no electricity. But i dont remember that part, so it hardly counts.

Since then, I camped often. Sometimes for weeks. Longest consecutive was about a month in the Uintas.

Longest with no electricity at home was 10 days due to a winter storm taking down lines all over. We didnt have a generator at the time.

Worst though, was no electricity at home with an infant, in the winter. That only went two days and one night, but it felt like eternity.

About a week. There was a very early season snowstorm. Deciduous trees still had leaves and caught a lot of snow. The weight broke limbs which took down power lines everywhere. In older neighborhoods with above ground lines and mature oak trees, nearly every line and every house had to have crews working them.

2 years. Lived in a village of about 400 people in West Africa.

2-3 days. Where we used to live in the mountains we’d loser power half a dozen times during the winter. Kind of enjoyed it. Everything slowed down, you hunkered down, and appreciated lost activities.

Still, we were never really without all power as my dad could run some appliances off his welding machine acting as a generator.