I live in an area that is prone to ice storms in the winter, tornadoes and the occasional hurricane in the spring, summer and fall, and some pretty specatacular thunder storms at just about any time. The last big thunder storm... about a month ago, had more than 500,000 people without power for several days.<br/><br/>The worst power outage that I recall was back in 1994. We got the mother of all ice storms and by the time it was done, nearly 2 1/2 inches of ice on EVERYTHING. If the ice didn't take down the power lines, the trees did. If the trees didn't, the cars slamming into the poles did... if the cars didn't, a dog urinated on a car door and you couldn't open the door... it was COLD!<br/><br/>3 entire cities only had spotty power for more than a week and the repair crews couldn't even get out for the first 2 days. We saw trucks from as far away as California doing repairs by the end of it.<br/><br/>We were lucky to have power (and heat), both brothers and sister didn't, so we were all crammed in here.<br/><br/>What gets me... and does to this day... is when the news broadcast...<br/><br/>"If you are without power, please call your energy provider at..."<br/><br/>Ummm... if they don't have power... how do they see that? lol