Thread by @RadioFreeTom

I had to deal with that "use water from the tub" thing during Hurricane Bob in 1991. And since I'm putting off more cleaning up, I have a mildly amusing Hurricane Bob story. *old grandpa voice*
/1

https://twitter.com/rpidrivestick/status/1429537302318039049

So, it was August 1991, and I was in my first teaching gig at the Naval War College. I was single and living in an apartment. I was a young Sovietologist, had just written my first book on Soviet civil-military relations. This is key to the story. /2

I'm sitting there watching CNN and this happens: "We have reports from Moscow that Mikhail Gorbachev has been removed in a coup in Moscow that..."
And the hurricane hit and all the power went off. I was screaming at a dead TV. /3

So I go to the phone - which in 1991 is still a thing attached to a wall - and I call a buddy of mine who at the time was as the RAND corporation and a Soviet wonk like me.
"HEY! WTF is going on?"
"DUDE! You won't believe it! There are tanks..."

And the phone goes dead. /4

Hurricane Bob was a real bastard of a storm, and really wrecked Newport. I was in a sturdy high-rise, and we were told to stay put. (Others were evacuated to school gyms, etc.)
So there I am, pacing around in a place with nothing but candles and totally incommunicado. /5

Finally, the lights go on, and the TV pops on - right on CNN where it was when it went off - and I hear:

"has returned to Moscow and the coup is over."

The biggest event in my area of specialization, and I was like a parakeet with a hood over its cage for some two days. /6

Basically, I had to reconstruct everything that happened over 72 hours from news and phone calls.
Also, I almost got killed when I stepped onto my balcony to remove something during the storm, but that's another story. /7x