jbibiza: I remember one of my favorite nights in my old bar... the power went out for several hours and instead of closing I lit loads of candles a couple of the lads ran home for their guitars... and more and more people started coming in, people seemed to have a need to be together... We had a great sing a long and put back a few drinks and when the power came back on we shut off the lights and carried on...
It was a brilliant night!
Had a New Years eve like that a few years ago at a friend's pub. Someone crashed their car into the transformer that supplied the area and out went the power.
I being the only sober one in the bar (not sure how that happened) drove a friend to his place where we grabbed a couple boxes of candles.
It ended up being one of the more memorable New Years eve's I've had in a long time. Much more intimate without the music on and people just chatting and a few singing in the candle light.
If there were to be an outage of any length here in Canada during the winter, I have no doubt a lot of people would simply freeze to death. Especially in the smaller communities like where I live. Most don't have alternate heat sources and a lot of older cars won't start unless the block heaters are plugged in to warm them up when it gets down to -20C or colder. Hard to drive anywhere to stay warm if your car won't start.
I am somewhat prepared but not completely at the moment. I have experienced many power outages here and in another small town in the Rockies, where we were the end of the line. Nothing past us for hundreds of miles.
You learn how to survive and prepare after being cold for a day or two.
