Sunday, August 28, 2011

Mood- bored yet ???
Health- melting hot and ugh

I am typing to you today from the front seat of my mini-van because we do not have power after Hurricane Irene and the van has a power adapter and most importantly... it has AC!

The storm was long, noisy and, after the first six hours of repetitious wind and rain... boring and hot.

We got little damage, just lost part of our cornice under our roof, but it is the aftermath that is causing me issues now.

I have extreme heat intolerance... mainly because I cannot regulate my body temperature, and within fifteen minutes of losing power the house started heating up gradually and so did I.  I do not sweat... or rather I should say that most of me does not sweat because my face will pour sweat while my arms, legs, torso and back stay powder dry.  This means that my temperature rises rather fast as I swiftly go into heat exhaustion and dash towards heat stroke with my temperature rising to 104+ and my heart doing the cha-cha.

I have ways to battle this, like using alcohol based hand sanitizer or alcohol gel on my arms, legs and neck and wiping down frequently with baby wipes to simulate the cooling effects of sweat... but when I sleep I cannot do this so I wake in pretty bad shape.

I have spent the day in my mini-van with the engine running and the AC on and can only hope that the power company was not giving false hopes and I really will have my power back by 11pm tonight.

I have been using my phone to keep connected online on facebook (my local news posts information on there, as well as my friends) and I have seen many posts on my local news facebook pages from people with medical conditions that need their AC and are trying to find out how to contact the electric company to let them know that someone at their address has a medical condition and they need to be a priority.

I have posted back to them reminding them that there are 1.2 million homes in Virginia and North Carolina without power served by Dominion Virginia Power and out of that number probably 50,000 are people with medical conditions that need to be a priority spread throughout the region and in times of Natural Disaster customers with Medical Needs should realize that they will not get faster service.  I shared my cooling tips (including using ice packs on the back of necks, knees and armpits and sitting in the car with the AC running)) and reminded them that if that does not help they might be better off going to the Hospital.

I know that this is not what the wanted to hear but this is a reality in the face of such a huge power outage.

It takes patience and proper planning for all contingencies to make it through things with the best possible outcome... that and a snarky sense of humor! :~)