By now, you might have heard about the big Pacific Northwest "Windstorm-of-the-Century" that has left 1 million without electricity, and 28 Days Later-like (or "Trigger Effect") conditions.
The storm itself was enjoyable because it was bizarre; rainless at times with a warm half-hurricane-like wind, turning the Northwest treescape into a gigantic regional windtunnel. In the aftermath, with the dead infrastructure silent (streetlights, traffic lights, city blackout, closed stores & closed gas stations, etc.), and temperatures dropping into the Farenheit-20s, "The Trigger Effect" is Live & Unfiltered.
$25 gasoline gouging, empty supermarket shelves, radio stations suspending programming to broadcast phone-in callers (alternately acting sane, to demanding electricity, to having meltdowns on-air). Police were called to guard gas stations, but only in Bellevue, the ultrawealthy Republican district where gas is being sold at one gas station for $25, price-gouged at others. The storm itself lasted no more than 10 hours, but the aftermath of electricity blackout is a few days, nothing cataclysmic for most.
But some can't handle it: not just the low-income & elderly (understandably), but many apparently Confederate transplants...some threatening to sue the (Democratic) Mayor because his power was restored first, some whining because they pay taxes but don't have immediate gratification.
Elsewhere, many people are pulling together: mostly apparently the Canadian transplants & Northwest natives (I'm neither). The Pacific Northwest has a carefully-protected heritage of tolerance & patience & community, and these values have surfaced everywhere during the crisis: Random acts of community are everywhere. Starbucks has missed an opportunity to offer free coffee to Puget Sound Energy workers (what a public relations showcase it could've been!). But many neighborhoods have rediscovered shared ties, and community has blossomed. City government, also, always strong with FDR/New Deal-Democrats and their values, has not failed: Emergency shelters are open, police are in rescue-mode, energy crews are working around-the-clock, and public servants are looking for opportunities to help.
As electricity is restored, the hospitalized-toll is climbing from citizens using charcoal briquettes indoors without ventilation. Even after 3 days, it seems word-on-the-street has not spread about this dubious practice. Most areas remaining without electricity are remote rural areas, some isolated and trapped by downed power lines & rows of trees. These areas are also the coldest, complicated by higher sea-level elevations and harsher temperatures.
Fortunately, because they couldn't get away with it, martial law was not declared by the Bush Administration (the majority-Democrat Pacific Northwest would flood the streets in protest after laughing our asses off) & "looters" (or "staged looters") were not unleashed to inspire public support for martial law or police-gone-wild.
But because electricity may not be restored in some areas for up to 10 more days or longer, panic still grows in places. Some stores are still empty, remote gas stations that can't be reached won't get supplied, but post offices will be open on Monday, and newspapers resumed printing Saturday.
And most people are returning to taking-for-granted heat, electricity & food supplies.
Even as the temperature drops into the Farenheit 20s, the homeless may not have noticed any difference during the entire time.