STFU.

I watched a little bit of local news at my parents’ house last night and read some local news this morning, including the comments.

People disgust me. That’s all I can say. After the storm hit, there were half a million people on Long Island without power. That’s a whole lot of people. That’s a whole lot of power to be restored. I think people believe there’s some magic switch over at LIPA headquarters that will miraculously restore power to everyone all at once and all the LIPA workers are just sitting around eating lunch and waiting for someone else to hit the Magic Restoration Switch.

Yea, I bitch about having no power. But I also understand what it takes to get the power back on for half a million people, especially when most of the outages are due to downed power lines, most of which were taken down by enormous trees that have to be chopped up and removed before the wires can be repaired. But you get these people who have no sense of reality, or who think they are somehow more important than everyone else. Why was another town’s power restored before theirs? HOW DARE THEY FIX SOMEONE ELSE’S ELECTRICITY BEFORE CONSULTING THEM FIRST. Like they are somehow entitled to be first in line for repairs on the basis of, what exactly? 

My favorite was the lady who asked “Who is going to reimburse me for the $500 worth of food I bought right before the storm that is rotting in my fridge?”

Ok, who is going to be the first for calling you a moron for buying $500 worth of perishable food right before a hurricane? ME! Let me call you a moron. MORON! You go out and buy food that won’t last without electricity and then you want someone to reimburse you for it? I’m sorry, but LIPA didn’t conjure up hurricane Irene with its apparent magical powers and they are certainly not to be held responsible for your stupidity.

Then there’s the lady on Facebook bitching that “I was driving to the store yesterday and I saw some LIPA workers sitting by their truck EATING LUNCH! THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FIXING OUR POWER NOT EATING ON COMPANY TIME!”

So these guys who are mostly working around the clock to get your power back to you were EATING? HOLY CRAP THEY TOOK TIME OUT FROM CUTTING UP TREES AND CLIMBING POLES AND REPAIRING WIRES AND RESTORING POWER TO EAT? OH MY GOD, FIRE THEM ALL.

On my way to work today I saw power trucks from Indiana and Alabama. Power companies from other states have sent their workers here to help get the power restored as soon as possible. That’s how bad the damage was and that’s how hard they are trying to get everything restored. But you go ahead and keep bitching at them for not getting it done fast enough or for not coming to your house FIRST. It’s been four days. Do these people remember Katrina? Do they have any idea how lucky they are to be slightly inconvenienced by having to throw out food and read by candlelight or actually talk to their family at night instead of watching tv?

No, I’m not happy about my power still being out. I’m not happy about an empty fridge and freezer. I’m not happy about being in the dark at night. But as much as I bitch about not having coffee in the morning or television at night, I know better than to think everything should have been fixed and back to normal by now.

I took my first post-hurricane drive through the neighborhood yesterday. I was stunned at the amount of damage Irene did. The crushed cars, the uprooted trees. I mean giant, ancient trees moved right out of the ground from their roots. Its kind of humbling to look at, to see the sort of destruction a fierce gust of wind can do. I don’t know about the morons who are bitching that work isn’t being done fast enough but I for one am feeling pretty fortunate that we escaped with just the death of a swingset and the loss of power for a few days.