London does a North America

[GNEP]

... we lost power for 30 minutes this evening, right in the middle of rush hour. Apparently some problem with the grid in Wimbledon quickly followed by a second problem brought the power down to a large part of the South-East, including all of London.

The tube got their backup supplies online in about 20 minutes, but by then they were shepherding people along the tracks and tunnels so couldn't re-start the network. It was still in tatters by late this evening, but should be normal tomorrow morning.

Buses were all packed of course

Luckily I was in a restaurant so we just had a rather longer wait for our meal (work do... so no problem there )

Seeing it on the news, apparently the most common reaction was oh-so-British - "ah sod it, I'm off to the pub" after ringing the other half to say the tube was down... quite a jovial atmosphere built up! I suspect London will be rather hungover tomorrow...

[Dr Mordrid]

Something like the reaction here. Most of our neighbors started up their BBQ's, dragged out the beer, steaks, burgers & franks and had a block party

Dr. Mordrid

[az]

When I saw the pics from north america, people helping each other, giving out free water, having spontaneous parties etc. I though we (the western world) could use something like that a little more often.

AZ

[Marshmallowman]

yeah, you gotta drink that beer before it gets warm...

[GNEP]

Heh - we drink our beer warm ANYWAY here (well, as long as you don't count lager as proper beer )

[Brian Ellis]

Oz, too, but from natural causes:

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,7086215%255E421,00.html

[Sethos]

warm beer ewww!!

~Sethos

[GNEP]

It's called bitter here and it's very nice

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by az
When I saw the pics from north america, people helping each other, giving out free water, having spontaneous parties etc. I though we (the western world) could use something like that a little more often.

AZ

You see such things here in the States & Canada far more often than you see the horror-story stuff the press carries. There is a strong sense of community spirt here that shows itself in everything from stopping to help stranded motorists to what happened during the outages. This can be seen in the contributions to charitable organizations in North America, even when times are tough. In many areas of the US individuals donate an average of 10-12% of their disposable income to charities; both domestic and those targeted for overseas.

This doesn't even begin to address how much volunteer time is donated, and in many high schools such volunteer efforts are now strongly encouraged as part of the curriculum. In 1999's figures volunteerism by 9-12th graders was placed at 55%.

The actions of the rat-fink minority are by far the exception.

Dr. Mordrid