Days Without Power:  4 (& Counting)

With my South Minneapolis neighborhood still without power four days after Friday’s storm, some rather novel “post-storm etiquette” issues have arisen.

generatorLike, “if you can get your hands on a (very noisy) generator, do you use it even if the overnight temps are cool and it’s going to keep your neighbors up all night?”

In the case of a certain, nearby neighbor, the answer would be “yes.”

Canvassing my other neighbors this morning, it appears that most of us relocated to front bedrooms or our basements to avoid the din (like the loudest lawn mower you’ve ever heard, albeit stationery rather than moving).

“Noisy Neighbor,” Redefined

As a former lawyer, I’d be curious what city ordinances say about excessive after-hours noise in the wake of a power outage.

I’m not aware that anyone phoned in a complaint (via cell phone — our land lines are still knocked out), but I imagine if they did, the conversation would go something like this:

Police:  ‘Your generator is keeping the entire block awake.  You have to turn it off.’

Generator-running neighbor:  ‘Get the $%#@&! utility company to restore my power and I’d be happy to!’

I suppose if this continues much longer and/or summer temp’s spike, the entire block is going to have to figure out how to get their own generators.

Or, maybe the neighbor will invite us to sleep over in his air-conditioned home. 🙂

P.S.:  Generators not only power a/c . . . they also keep fridges and freezers running.

Unfortunately, we’ve had to chuck the contents of ours already, as have all our neighbors.

About the author

Ross Kaplan has 19+ years experience selling real estate all over the Twin Cities. He is also a 12-time consecutive "Super Real Estate Agent," as determined by Mpls. - St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business Magazine. Prior to becoming a Realtor, Ross was an attorney (corporate law), CPA, and entrepreneur. He holds an economics degree from Stanford.

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