by Michelle Lentz
Back in 2004, my husband and I took a late summer trip to Jamaica. It was great – until we got caught in Hurricane Ivan. Ivan was a Category 5 hurricane that swept through the island. We were in Negril, otherwise known as the eye of the storm. By the time we finally got on a plane home, everyone was at the end of their rope. There was a rousing round of applause as we took off from the beautiful Caribbean.
In between getting to the airport and the end of the hurricane was a power outage; we were completely cut off from information for several days. No radio, no TV, no telephones, no Internet. I had a panic attack and I kept picturing myself sitting at my computer, my finger plugged directly into a network jack as I directly absorbed information.
One of the things I did when we got home from Jamaica was work to wean myself off of information. I didn’t have the opportunity to put this to the test until this week. Cincinnati was hit by the remains of Hurricane Ike. It was a freak windstorm, but the resulting chaos from hurricane strength gusts led to several deaths, debris everywhere, and a city without power for several days. Now, what Cincinnati went through (is still going through in some cases) is no where near the devastation that was felt by Texas or part of Louisiana that were laid waste by Gustav. However, as a fairly landlocked city, we were ill-prepared.
Much to my surprise, I neither panicked during the windstorm, nor did I panic over the last week where information was slightly scarce. It wasn’t as bad as it could be. In fact, I believe everyone in the city were thankful for their mobile phones. Personally, I found myself extremely grateful for my iPhone, which continued to provide my email and Internet throughout “Blackout 2008.”
But my need for information isn’t as strong as it was a few years back. In fact, not having much Internet access was sort of like taking a vacation for my brain. I hesitate to say that I enjoyed it a little.
Four days in, my landlocked city is still trying to get the electricity back on for the 300,000 people who are still left without power. Many businesses and schools are still closed and roads are still blocked by giant old trees. But overall we survived our second weird weather event of 2008.
If you were cut off from information, would you panic? Or would you welcome it?
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