I live in New Jersey and although luckily none of my property was damaged during Hurricane Irene, I still have no electricity at my house. I'm writing this at the public library where I've been spending a lot of my time at. Living without power is pretty dreadful, especially at night. I've been doing a lot of reading with a flashlight when it gets dark to pass time. Luckily, I have a gas stove so I'm able to cook food and boil water.

I've come to the conclusion that the reason I don't have power is because a tree fell on the power line down the street from my house. The township has removed the tree, but the power company hasn't even started working on fixing the power line. I understand that they're overwhelmed, but it makes it even more frustrating knowing that the power company isn't even working on fixing the issue. I guess they have nothing to worry about though. It's not like they're going to lose customers or anything. Everyone needs electricity and it isn't like you can change your power company.

Anyway, I hope those who have experienced damage from the hurricane are okay. While what I'm experiencing is annoying, it is in no way devastating and in many ways I feel fortunate.

Although I could argue that power loss isn't the greatest problem, i feel for ya dude, hope no one was hurt and that the damage wasn't too great.

Well, at least you're looking on the bright-side. Glad you're okay.

Am I the only one that thinks Irene is a horrible name, hurricane or not?

Damn that's terrible, being in a library and all..

We lost power here in Massachusetts for three days during an insane ice storm a few years ago that destroyed most trees. My Kindle died and I was only able to charge my phone via USB off the remaining battery power of my laptops.

I ended up working 14 hours a day for those three days just to have something to do. It was terrible. Also keep in mind it was well below freezing outside with constant snow and ice and most businesses closed. Not like I could just "go outside" (not that I would have anyway). The worst part was the ice showers every morning. No electricity = no heat. The water in the pipes was literally just above freezing temperatures.

Edit: Luckily, Irene just dumped a shit ton of water on us. A few trees and signs down, but nothing else.

Glad that you didnt suffer damges beyond not having electric power , but man it does suck ( were I live I hd a power outage for 2 days and man was it boring as hell)

That sucks but at least nothing more serious happened.
I battened down the hatches here in Halifax but it never really hit us with much.

Eat your leftover gabagool, cook some manigot and do the fungere with your goomar. I'm sure that'll pass the time.

Am I the only one that thinks Irene is a horrible name, hurricane or not?

@Rolyatkcinmai said:

We lost power here in Massachusetts for three days during an insane ice storm a few years ago that destroyed most trees. My Kindle died and I was only able to charge my phone via USB off the remaining battery power of my laptops.

I ended up working 14 hours a day for those three days just to have something to do. It was terrible. Also keep in mind it was well below freezing outside with constant snow and ice and most businesses closed. Not like I could just "go outside" (not that I would have anyway). The worst part was the ice showers every morning. No electricity = no heat. The water in the pipes was literally just above freezing temperatures.

Edit: Luckily, Irene just dumped a shit ton of water on us. A few trees and signs down, but nothing else.

3 days from an ice storm eh?!? i think it was what? 3 years ago, Washington and north western oregon was raped by a snow storm that knocked out power for from what i remember 3 - 4 weeks for the majority of people and guess what time it was that it happened? 3 days from Christmas. California, Idaho, Montana and even Canada sent workers to help fix all the power outages.. Now that sucked ass and it was a simple snow storm.

well that sucks. a few places where i live had no power. a person at a temp work said he didn't have power either. it must be pretty boring to not have anything to do.

We had half power during Hurricane Ike in 2008.There is a great feeling of want and displacement that comes with power loss. We have First Energy, and I actually saw a NJ (Edison?) utility truck here, among others. I know for sure our company is out there on the coast now, as they always brag about the interactive sharing thing on TV. We were totally out for 4 1/2 days during that great american blackout some years back.
 What used to be an hour or so when I was a kid now stretches out due to aging infrastructure, methinx.

No power here in Connecticut since sunday morning and it's not expected to be fixed this week. Luckily we have a generator running to power the refrigerator and some lights. No hot water though. Our local library has been packed every day with people using the wifi (saw some playing farmville) and charging their phones.

I live in New Jersey too.  I'm an electrical contractor so the past few days have involved hooking up a lot of generators for businesses and a few homes.  Luckily, my own home never lost power.

I just got my electricity back!