Airport Closes - Hunt for Power Begins
The Minneapolis / St. Paul International Airport was shut down for a bit this afternoon due to a flash flood. No planes were taking off or landing, so passengers waiting in the terminal decided it was time to hunker down near an outlet while they waited out the storm.
The storm was intense, but passed through quickly (at least this wave of it has):
Since the Vikings game was on, some people chose to watch the Vikings help Brett Favre make NFL history in downtown Minneapolis' the climate controlled Metrodome:
But the techie crowd - or, people with laptops and cell phones running short on juice - found themselves scrambling for outlets, including spots along the floor in Concourse G:
It's worth noting that a few passengers turned to books rather than laptops to help deal with their unplanned boredom.
The lack of power outlets in public gathering spots (ie. airports, coffee shops, etc) is becoming more of an issue as the popularity of various gadgets increase.
I've found that there are many places I can take my laptop to jump on a Wi-Fi network, but it's often hard to find an outlet to plug into.
I guess when most of these places were built, it was before this technological/internet revolution and they didn't think about so many people needing a place to plug in.
1. Posted by: Peter Glyman on October 1, 2007 7:28 AM:
Great post...there are never enough outlets right? Can't wait until batteries last for days instead of hrs :-)
Little trick when looking for a free outlet at an airport. Check under phone booth clusters. Often the 2-3 phone booths next to each other have a traditional outlet underneath. Shhhhh...don't tell anyone.