Hurricane Isabel came and went this weekend, leaving behind her a trail of downed trees, flooded roads and pools of candle wax.
Storm winds caused power outages, leaving many University students in the dark for days. In fact, some students still are living by candlelight.
Second-year College Student Joe Scavongelli lost power Thursday evening and regained it early Saturday morning. Scavongelli said he and roommates depended on flashlights to light their Preston apartment. They also depended on their next door neighbors, who had stocked up on candles.
"We didn't have any candles," Scavongelli said. "But we went over to our neighbors who had candles burning."
Fourth-year Engineering student Amanda Singleton and her housemates lost power Thursday afternoon and have yet to regain electricity.
Unlike Scavongelli, Singleton said they had plenty of candles but neglected to stock up on batteries, which ruled out flashlight use.
Both Singleton and Scavongelli had to deal with the difficulty of keeping meat and dairy products from spoiling as their freezers and refrigerators slowly thawed.
Grilling, they both said, was a convenient and satisfying solution to the problem of spoiling meat.
Scavongelli said he and his roommates prevented food waste by cooking five or six pounds of meat over an open flame. "We just emptied our freezer and had a meat fest," Scavongelli said.
Singleton said she has stopped spoilage by cooking her perishable food at other friends' houses.
Inevitably however, she will have to throw away some items, practically throwing money down the drain.
"Having to throw out food is the worst part of the power outage," Singleton said.
Without distractions like Internet and T.V., one might think the blackout would be conducive to catching up on homework. Scavongelli and Singleton, however, argued otherwise.
"It was too hard to do homework by flashlight," Scavongelli said. "So I just decided it was a lost cause."
Singleton agreed, saying she and her friends found it difficult to get work done in blackout conditions.
"We've been going out more," Singleton said. "Because you can't do work anyway."
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