patrick.net

I was reading a report from a Facebook friend in Colorado that the wind chill factor had dropped down to -23 Fahrenheit. I joked to her that it was not a good time to forget to pay your electric bill. I know this from first hand experience. In January of 1973 my first wife and I were living in an apartment in Colombia, Maryland. It was scheduled to drop down to zero degrees Fahrenheit with a strong Maryland wind. We walked into the apartment. We found that we had no electricity or gas. In a panic I called Baltimore Gas and Electric to report an outage. I got the shocking news that my service had been cut because I forgot to pay the bill. I pleaded with the customer service person to restore service and let me pay in the morning. I told them about the bad winter storm. My pleas fell on deaf ears. I was told to come in the following morning with a cash payment.
My wife and I knew it was truly going to be a cold night. We brought out every blanket that we had. We put on our heavy coats and brought Charlie and Mr McGee (the dogs) to bed with us. We survived the cold and wild night.
Sadly people do freeze to death in situations like this. I suspect that most utility companies are more humane now than 40 years ago.