Black Outs!!

If you haven't already heard, last night was a mess for most of the eastern side of North America.

It's all over the news:

Pulse24
CBC

Power was lost in the office building I work in at around 4:15pm... We didn't get power back at home until apx. 3am this morning...

It was pretty hectic last night... the roads were a mess, the heat was getting to people, and most importantly, no internet access ()...

Nevertheless, people were really helpful in most situations. Handing out water to those stranded, providing food and shelter to those in need... Its times like these that show how caring human beings really can be!

Anyone else affected? Share your experiences/stories... I'd love to hear them!

It will be interesting if you share your experiences ONLY related to Information Technology, I mean, for example,

EXAMPLE1
If you were working in a Data Center, what measure you took to keep you site alive.

EXAMPLE2
Did you take any backup plan during the power disaster, if so what you did to backup of your Terra bytes of data?

EXAMPLE3:
Describe the Frankenstein version of your Manager face when disaster took place, if you were working in a data warehouse.

I hope more professionals will come out with their own experiences.

However, the disaster is still going on in some area and will remain continue till Sunday.

So, we the audience are looking forward to hear all your real life IT experiences during this disaster.

Please do not describe those stories, like how you enthusiastically did control traffic during this time when intersections became 4-way stop!

Well, I have to say that sometimes it's the personal stories that make it most interesting.

I did in fact almost start directing traffic... And it was quite the experience. The thought of having people coming in all directions (people you have to trust) can be pretty scary.

As for dealing with it in an IT-related way, apart from rebooting my system the following day, I didn't have much else to worry about. We didn't suffer any data loss...

I wouldn't mind hearing any other stories people had... Personal or business-related are both welcome!

I just posted my story in response to the Interview... to keep with data normalization, i'll post a link to the forum instead of reposting my big rant =)


http://www.devarticles.com/forum/sh...=&threadid=4733

I was in luck - I actually was at home that day. Saved me from walking down 19 flights of stairs and having to find a way home with a 3 year old in tow. It took my spouse over 2 hours to walk home. So times that by about 4 and you get an idea of how long it might have taken me with Junior.

Initially I assumed the power outing was just my block because I didn't have access to a battery powered radio. The way I found out was that my mother, who lives in another part of Canada, had watched the news and left me a message. Silly me though, I was using my cellphone (which had spotty service) to pick up messages on my home phone cause I figured the phone lines were down. In fact, it was just my cordless (electric powered phone). D'oh. Once I plugged in my old phone, I didn't have to rely on my cellphone. Word to the wise, keep a non-cordless phone around - it could come in handy.

We ended up using my kid's fisher price flashlight to find the candles (having forgot to replace the batteries in our flashlight).

We were out of power from 4:30 p.m to 4:30 a.m. the next day. Unfortunately the power went off again at 7:00 a.m. before I got a chance to make coffee (ugh). It came back on again about 5:00 p.m. in time to make dinner.

Seems that our site never went down, but I did have problems connecting remotely to our network. Our building did have power, but they were recommending that people stay home.

Yeah, a few people were in the same situation like you.

I spoke with a few people who were without power for more than 24 hours. All I can say is that's a lot of wasted food!!

I tried to eat as much ice cream as I could!

As for your spouse, that's nuts!! A co-worker walked for 4 hours and then hopped onto the bus.. she said by that time they were empty enough to actually get on. She said that at one point, people were sticking their heads out the window because the buses were so full.