The grid and the village : losing electricity, finding community, surviving disaster / Stephen Doheny-Farina.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Doheny-Farina, Stephen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Electric power distribution--New York (State)--Cold weather conditions.

Electric power distribution.

Electric power failures--Social aspects--New York (State)--Potsdam Region--Case studies.

Electric power failures.

Ice storms--New York (State)--Saint Lawrence County--History.

Ice storms.

Potsdam Region (N.Y.)--Social life and customs--20th century.

Potsdam Region (N.Y.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (225 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In January 1998 a massive ice storm descended on New York, New England, and eastern Canada. It crushed power grids from the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic, forcing thousands of people into public shelters and leaving millions of others in their homes without electricity. In this riveting book Stephen Doheny-Farina presents an insider's account of these events, describing the destruction of the electric network in his own village and the emergence of the face-to-face interactions that took its place. His stories examine the impact of electronic communications on community, illuminating the relationship between electronic and human connections and between networks and neighborhoods, and exploring why and how media portrayals of disasters can distort authentic experience. Doheny-Farina begins by discussing the disaster and tracing the origins of the storm. He then goes back two hundred years to tell how this particular electric grid was built, showing us the sacrifices people made to create the grids that (usually) connect us to one another. Today's power grid, says Doheny-Farina, has become more vulnerable than we realize, as demand begins to outstrip capacity in urban centers around the nation. His book reminds us what those grids mean-both positively and negatively-to our electronically saturated lives.

Contents:

Front matter

contents

preface trading tales

one. from accidents to disaster

two .origins of a grid, part 1

three. the grid crumbles

four. origins of a grid, part 2

five. the grid rebuilt

six. the grid and the village

afterword a disaster timeline

notes

index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-281-72297-9

9786611722975

0-300-13382-0

OCLC:

1024005383