StarDestroyer.Net BBS

As many of you know, we on the coast of Virginia had to contend with Hurricane Isabel last week. We had a lot of power lines knocked down here in Norfolk. I suffered the infuriating bother of seeing power come back on in every single neighborhood around mine, but my lone street stayed dark for the past six days. Since Virginia Power was concentrating on repairing lines that would bring electricity back to the largest number of homes first, my little dead end street was way, waaaaaaaay down on the priority list. This was especially infuriating since, as a cop, I routinely patrol some of the shittiest neighborhoods in Norfolk, and it was positively maddening to all these shitbags with electrical power while I remained in the dark.

But then came salvation from the North. On my way to traffic court this morning, I saw a line of trucks from Quebec working in my neighborhood, clearing a tree that had fallen across the lines, and repairing the damage. I stopped and talked to them briefly. It seems they had got into town in the wee, dark hours of the morning, and Virginia Power had put them, along with several other Quebecois crews to work fixing lines that VEPCO hadn't even sceduled for repair yet. They are in Norfolk because a year or two ago they had a bad ice storm up in Quebec that brought down a lot of their lines up there, and VEPCO/Virginia Power sent some of our crews up there to help. So they came down here in the aftermath of Isabel to return the favor. I for one, am profoundly grateful.

America and Canada have been pretty good about coming to each others' assistance during natural disasters. I remember seeing the endless line of Detroit Edison trucks heading to Quebec in the middle of the night when they had their big ice storm.