I thought I was ready for the storm. I had put away pots and garden stuff. I had batteries and torches. I had even done the washing. On Friday morning the winds sounded fierce, the tiles flew across the yard and then the phone/4G network went down. So what now I wondered, as the Wi-Fi went off and the lights flickered and vanished. I was not prepared for four days with no electricity and no Wi-Fi.
But I am luckier than many as I have a wood burner and a gas hob so I could live. I even got good at washing my hair in a bucket. My friend down the street hosted most of my freezer and the cats benefited from defrosted fish fingers.
A Community’s Response
News filtered through that Hillyard House was open and offering Wi-Fi and charging, and news of Unit T and YMCA offering soup. WhatsApp lit up with offers of help and the community started rallying. The evening air was full of purring generators.
When the NIE guys came up I asked if I could kidnap them or even feed them – but sadly neither, but they came the following day. The shower was definitely the best I had in sometime. Belatedly there were messages on Facebook about Council initiatives.
Not as Prepared as I Thought
But what did I learn? Flippantly, I can tell you that T-lights are rubbish. You need proper candles and Tilly Lights to light a room, and I should have had a preloaded charging device for my phone as an emergency backup.
More seriously, as I write, there are families who are still without electricity, and that is their only means of heating and cooking. There are older people who are not on Facebook or WhatsApp and have no family. How are we caring for them? It’s great that the community centre in Downpatrick and others are open, but if you have no car, how do you get there?
Not Just This Storm
This is not the first storm this winter, I would like to say it will be the last but it won’t be. With climate change the seas are getting warmer, and so have more energy which is picked up by our weather systems bringing us more heavy rain events, like last year that flooded Downpatrick, and more violent storms such as Eowyn. The winds are shifting from NW to SW so this part of Co Down is very vulnerable.
Our electricity grid is already under strain, and as we transition to cleaner energy and further electrify our homes, including heating, the risk of power outages during extreme weather becomes even more critical. Without a reliable grid or backup power, outages in winter can be dangerous.
As a Community, Are We Ready?
We need to really up the conversation at a community level. Discussion and planning are key to improving resilience against extreme weather events and power outages.
We need political leadership to help the community to prepare. The Council must connect with grassroot community groups and think about how we prepare and support the community, especially the most vulnerable in weather events. Most of all how do we communicate when the phone network goes down? We need forward planning so families know where they can go and know who might be most vulnerable. I am sure Paddington didn’t have this problem in deepest darkest Peru?
Lessons from Days in the Dark
The good news is that we were well-warned the storm was coming. Can we pool our learning from this one, so we can be better prepared for the next?
In the coming weeks and months, the Dolmens Climate Action Network will be organising a series of community discussions and learning opportunities to help with preparedness and the future of powering and heating our homes.