Every summer, the words of Eddie Murphy’s impersonation of James Brown echo in my mind: “It’s too hot!  In the hot tub!”  Well, it’s certainly too hot, but waiting for the subway in Manhattan isn’t quite like stepping into Eddie Murphy’s hot tub: there’s nothing relaxing about it.   

Con Edison set a new record for energy usage yesterday, prompting every New Yorker to fear a city-wide blackout.  The residents of Queens are just now beginning to recover from the 8-day blackout that devastated local businesses and residents alike.   We’ve found the Gothamist to have excellent local coverage of these happenings.

The city as a whole certainly has a lot to learn from the recent blackout and current peak energy usage.  We’re not going to cast any political stones here, but we do now that individuals and businesses alike must take every precaution available.  Obviously, employers should look after their employees first, making sure they’ve got a way to cool down and keeping them plenty hydrated.  Every business’s disaster recovery plan should cover what to do in the event of a blackout - will your business shut down completely, or do you have an alternative?  Over at our data center, we’re sleeping soundly (well, as long as our AC is running) knowing that we’ve got diesel generators on standby. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 at 2:02 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.