ASK DR. BAUGHAN                                             January 16, 1998

GRACE ON ICE

In the Ice Storm 1998, one of the most remarkable natural disasters of my lifetime, the relatively few adverse health consequences deserve note.  It was an useful experience to discover that man can survive without electricity for extended periods of time in winter - uncomfortably, but generally healthfully - with certain conditions.

The public information to avoid certain health risks has been widespread and apparently effective, so I will only briefly repeat them for those aliens who landed in New England yesterday, read English, and find a copy of the Conway Daily Sun.

1.     Don’t touch power lines unless you are a trained professional.  Too many of those electrons you have been missing are a lot worse than none at all.

2.     Don’t hook up a generator to your house unless you know what you are doing.  You risk injury or death not only to yourself, but to the utility company worker who came all the way from Ohio to help you.

3.     Make sure that generators are outside so their exhaust does not fill your house with carbon monoxide.  The carbon monoxide precaution applies to kerosene heaters, wood stoves, oil heaters, anything that burns fuel inside a house.

I would mostly like to pause and note was has not happened and appreciate the qualities of living  here that allow grace in the face of hardship.

1.     There have not been large numbers of people suffering illness or death from hypothermia.  Neighbors  have sought out elderly neighbors.  Shelters sprang up promptly. 

2.     There have not been reports of looting, home break-ins, or other crimes.  This deserves note given how often it has occurred in other places in the United States of America.

3.     There have not even been reports of conflict over hoarding of possibly scarce resources.  Not to bash California too much, but when I lived there and there were earthquake tremors or warnings, you could predict wars over toilet paper and milk in the local grocery stores.

4.     There has not been much reported regarding  profiteering.  The story I have not heard followed up was the attempt by the out-of-state owners of the moth-balled wood-fueled power plant in Bangor to charge exorbitant rates to start it up.

5.     There have not been epidemics of parental insanity from children being out of school for such extended times, although from the rumblings in my office, we are now teetering on the edge of a major health hazard here.

So I salute and commend my neighbors, the media, the repair crews, and the community leaders who have pulled together to show that a  society can work faced with a major life and health-threatening challenge.  Keep it up!  It ain’t over quite yet.