I miss ice in my water and batteries so I can listen to the news of what is happening and being able to check Twitter developments and call family.

It depends on the season. I miss heat the most when it's very cold, AC the most when it's very hot, and refrigeration the most when it's "open window weather."

I miss having lights and heat/or A/C, depending on the season. Hard to sleep in a dark, hot house in the summer. Of course, I miss the refrigeration, hate to see food spoil and miss having that ice in drinks. I listen to the radio a lot, but rather have access to TV to watch favorite shows.

Of course A/C is a big deal during weather like we're having now. But in general, I miss the internet when the power goes out. You don't realize how much you depend on your computer as a connection to the world at large until the battery runs out and there's no place to plug in.

nothing...nice to have no technology for once..amen!

refrigeration, hands down! I can cook on a camp stove, go into the basement to stay cool, but I hate seeing food spoil!

I miss my revenues. :-(

i miss electricity the most. it reminds you just how dependent we are on it.

Coffee

Other than AC/Heat during extreme temps, and refrigeration keeping my food fresh, I don't miss electricity that much. I do walk into rooms and flip the switch, and laugh at myself tho.

Taking a shower.

We used our multi-ban radio to get updates, slept in our basement, and relied on the kindness of friends to charge up our iPads, phones and nooks.

Major, major thanks to Pat Troy's owners and staff for letting us into the restaurant early on Saturday and serving as an unofficial cooling station this weekend. Their kindness this weekend is one more reason why I am glad to be a Ballyshaner (St. Patrick's Day Parade committee member.).

Three words. Make that four. Light in the bathroom. :(

I miss television - it's my life! I actually read a book during the power outage, it was fun!

I have a smart phone and was able to charge it in my car. Stumbling around in the dark was disconcerting and not having air circulation made the heat unbearable. With even marginal lighting and working fans, I think I would have tolerated the power outage much better and would have been much less irritable. :)

Still have no elec .. sleeping is difficult .. dealing wth no refrigeration is no fun (esp having to deal wth it) .. living out of a cooler is a pain. Seems every1 only 2 blox away from us has power .. pleeeze Dominion!! Hurry!!

Without a doubt what we missed most was air conditioning. Thanks to Hurricane Isabel, we have two large generators that kept fridges, freezer and three room fans powered up which kept the indoor temperatures bearable. We were able to plug modem in, so we had internet. We confined ourselves to 3 rooms, a screened porch at night, and the basement for sleeping. The rest of the house was sweltering. Preparation is the key! It was like camping out in the family room. (I hate camping!) :-)

What do I miss most - my servant, electricity! In all ways that I use my servant to make my life trot along as it should. I am old enough to remember neighbors who had one light on a long cord swinging from the ceiling in the kitchen and a real ICE box that was filled on a regular basis. And worst of all having to empty the drip pan on a regular basis. GRIN

In order:
1 - running water (we're on a well)
2 - fans

We're on a farm so we're a little cooler, have a pool to stay cool and can cook with gas. Fridges kept things coolish for day 1, then switched to cooler with ice, which wasn't that bad. My wife and I have smart phones so could check on novec lying to us about ETA for power restoration, and news about everyone else suffering. Charged em in our cars.

Yea! My 90-yr-old Mom got power in Franklin Park. Hope everyone else does soon!

I missed the AC, of course. But more than that I missed my morning coffee!

Refrigeration is a biggie (no one wants to waste food)! NOVEC did a terrific job in getting us back up within 24 hours, but it took 5 DAYS for Verizon to get our phone and internet services back up! We lost our landline (had a phone with a line & jack, but there were problems on Verizon's end), our DSL, and had spotty wireless service as well. It's incomprehensible that Verizon would be down for this long, and I'm especially upset because you couldn't get any information from them on what progress was being made (you had to call separate departments for internet, landline, and wireless and wait at least 45 minutes for each, rather than just reporting all problems to one tech support person). Every time I called they gave a generic "it'll be fixed in 24-48 hours", and of course after each deadline nothing would be fixed. The media reported on the 911 problem, but didn't really mention the fact that tons of people were without landline, internet, and wireless services for almost a week. Someone ought to hold Verizon responsible for this. The least they could do would be to provide updates to the media on what was being done to fix problems. I can't believe they wouldn't have reliable backups for such important services. It shows you the problem with relying on one company for all of your communication services!

Be prepared. Go to the FEMA site and research the emergency preparedness information. You WILL need to be prepared sooner or later.

Good point. Hey Patch, how about a poll on the thing or things that helped the most to survive the power outage? We have battery-powered fans that helped us keep semi-sane in the heat. Other things that helped were a camp stove, camp lights, solar shower and the coolers. We also have a wind-up radio that will charge a cell phone--would have been great if we had any cell phone coverage..........

I'm sorry for all u people but be sorry for me it is hot in my house it's about a 1000 degrees I. My house I was getting wosey in my bathroom I was about to faint god pry that the power will go on

It's funny because I could TOTALLY go without A/C as long as I have Internet. Wow. I've really become that connected. I need to go outside for a run now, hahah