Living In The Dark

Image by Adam Sutton via Flickr

In case you have been living in the dark, residents of South-east London have been literally living in the dark for the last few days. Vandals attacked cables in Dartford which resulted in thousands of people living without power since Monday afternoon.

Apparently the last of the 100,000 homes affected were reconnected at 6am this morning, residents have been asked to only use power “for essential purposes only" over the coming days while the grid stabilises.

Although it's been disruptive, it's provided an eventful few days across the region. I first realised this was widespread when details emerged on Facebook as many of my friends were affected by the blackout. Arriving home that evening was like returning to an apocalyptic scene with no street lights, traffic signals, houses illuminated by candlelight and no indication when this would be resolved. My children stayed in the evening, spending the final night with me before travelling to Florida and they were as intrigued as I was about the situation.

For the majority of the last few days it's brought everyone together in my family, without access to the Internet, high-def television and videogames the emphasis has been on communication. We have been playing board games and catching up with my sister and boyfriend who returned from their latest holiday. The blackout provided a brief insight into how much we take the comforts and luxuries in our lifestyles for granted, with an iPhone and 3G connection though it was only a minor distraction. Haven't heard anything from my children yet but I'm sure they were tired yesterday from the travelling and being in a different time zone!

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• London blackout victims finally reconnected, says EDF Energy (thelondonpaper.com)
• Generators shipped in as blackout misery continues (kentonline.co.uk)