elfman

Woke up this morning at about 8:20 to discover that we had no power. Found out from the neighbours it went off around 7:30am, and it eventually came back on at 10:55am. Then at about 2:30pm, just as I was putting the finishing touches to a lengthy email, the bloody power went out again, but this time for only 10 minutes. This is not as unusual as you might think - in the 25 months we've lived in our current house we've had a couple of power cuts obviously due to storms but about half a dozen outages (including today's as one) in good weather for no apparent reason. I lived for a similar period of time in a town in Uganda and can honestly say that I found the power supply there to be marginally more reliable than it is here in north-central NJ.

Is the power supply more or less reliable than this for everyone else? We live in a fairly suburbanised area 30 miles west of New York - it's not like we're out in the sticks here.

Rushman

Power went out here at 2300 hrs last night and went on again at 1430. happens at least twice a month in the winter months up here due to snow fall and/or ice storms.

I am so sick of hearing how advanced this country is.......power lines on poles in winters with snowfall measured in feet NOT inches ???? WTF is all that about. I can remember the last time I had a power cut in the UK.

We have 6 kids here....I can't afford to be subjected to regular powercuts. Everytime the lights come back on there's another bloody mouth to feed.

Pony

It happens enough here that I bought a small generator to power the essentials.
We has a similiar thread a while back on the subject:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=386276

elfman

Ah - I missed that because I was back in the old country on holiday (and the last time I remember experiencing a power cut in Britain was back in the late 70s).

Edit: just read that thread - perhaps this one will also end up with people having sex with farm animals in Home Depot.

Bob

power cuts, yup, loads of them, on really hot days with AC madness, in heavy rain because people crash into the poles, in snow, because theres a lot of it and poles break...

it was pretty bad in maine as well, even in a "City"...but it's as bad here down in mass..

Angry White Pyjamas

Power cuts are a way of life in Florida.

willmore

The states need to start paying their bills for the hydro that they are buying from canada!

elfman

It amused me the way they at first tried to blame Canada for the big blackout in the northeast USA in August 03.

willmore

Ah with the bush administration we get blamed for everything - just the other day bush was quoted as saying that canada was a "terror threat".

Angry White Pyjamas

I thought Canada was just the USA's hat?

elfman

Oh Canada - also known to certain people as the Soviet Republic of Canuckistan.

Ray

Here the US map

Sally

England is a bit specific - shouldn't it be London?

gruffbrown

You called?

Frequent power outages in South Jersey, seems to be when it rains hard for some reason.

willmore

I thought we were just considered the "bedroom" of the states!