Harry Potter and the Adventure of Having No Electricity

July 20, 2005

By Hannah Willmott of Bermuda Book Store

Hannah Willmott

Well, the last few days have been an adventure for us here in Bermuda. It all started at about 3:05 a.m. on Thursday, July 14, when I woke with the vague feeling that something was wrong. It took me a few bleary seconds to realize that the power was out (no air conditioning!), but that's not so unusual so back to sleep I went.

The power was still out when I woke up. I had managed to oversleep a bit (no alarm clock!), but by 7:30 a.m. I was in my car heading for work.

The first indication that something was really wrong was when I realized that there were no radio stations. Very odd. I switched to the AM band and started searching for the emergency station. Nothing. Oh dear. I pulled over and reached for the cell phone. Hmmm ... not many bars there. And no answer from home.

Ah well, probably nothing to worry about. Onward to town! Then I turned onto Harbour Road.... Then I looked across the harbour.... (Oh My God!) Huge plumes of smoke were billowing from the vicinity of BELCO! (The electricity company has blown up!)

I pulled over again and called another friend and this time got through. Turned out that the emergency radio station is actually on the FM band (duh!). I tuned in and found out that ... well ... the electricity company had blown up. There had been a major fire in one of BELCO's switching rooms, and the whole island was without power. I was almost at work by that point so I persevered and got to the store. There I found all of the neighboring storeowners congregating on the sidewalk, and more information was flying: The power should be back on today. The power won't be on for weeks. The City of Hamilton will be last to have power. Some people already have power. No one has any coffee!

I decided to open the store as usual and set about preparing for a lot of sweating. I can manage without lights, toilets, a cash register, or a credit card machine -- but no air-conditioning? Ouch! The signs went up outside the store: "You know you need a book today!" "You don't need electricity to read a book!" "Yes, we are open!"

People seemed amused, and we actually had a steady flow of customers (although the number of people who tried to give us credit cards was quite incredible!). Soon the big question started to rear its ugly head: "What are you going to do about Harry Potter tomorrow night?"

We had planned to have a big party -- closing off the street and having a bouncy castle, craft tables, fire-eaters, and all sorts of excitement. Would we have electricity?

As the day went by the prospect looked less and less likely. The rest of the island was coming back up, but the BELCO spokespeople weren't promising anything for the City of Hamilton. Apparently the huge amount of power that the city was likely to draw was causing a problem. Plus there were various other technical aspects that eluded me completely, but certainly didn't sound good. By midday though, we at the bookstore had made our decision: We would be selling Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at one minute past midnight on Friday, July 15 (that would technically be Saturday, July 16, for you Bloomsbury and Scholastic people reading this), whether we had electricity or not!

I got on the radio and made the announcement. The DJ was very chatty, and the message appeared to get through loud and clear. The Bermuda Bookstore was not a slave to its electrical supply and was open now, and would remain open, for the publishing world's biggest night ever!

Friday morning dawned bright and clear. Well ... no it didn't actually.... Big black clouds loomed overhead, and soon the rain began to fall. Now to put this into perspective for nonresidents, you need to appreciate that for the last six weeks, Bermuda has been suffering through its biggest drought in 50 years! Today it decides to rain!

Then the calls started coming. The rental company needed to know if we were still having the party. Would we still need the tent and bouncy castle? Well, I didn't know if we would still be able to close off the road so I called City Hall. No answer. So I walked up to City Hall. It was closed. Fortunately, my superior knowledge of back entrances enabled me to sneak in and find a live person diligently signing paychecks.

No, we would not be able to close the road off: No staff to put up the barriers, and besides, they needed to keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles. Well, fair enough. Cancel the tent and bouncy castle. The rain is still pouring so the fire-eaters would be out anyway. But what about all this craft stuff we had bought?

We clear out as much of the front entrance to our tiny store as possible, and Amanda sets about making beaded frog key chains. The rain continues. The lunchtime press conference with BELCO tells us that they are expecting to have the city up and running by Monday morning. Monday?... Oh lordy!

We finally bit the bullet and sent the guys to go and rescue the boxes of books from their basement tomb. Our storage basement is about a block away from the store, and at this moment in time was, like the rest of Hamilton, in pitch darkness and had no elevators working. Oh, and did I mention that it was pouring rain?

By 4:00 p.m. things were looking rosier. The rain had stopped, and the books were in the store with a large dragon sitting on top of the boxes to guard them. I sent my staff home to get some rest and set about answering the telephone, which by now was ringing off the hook: "Are you still having your Harry Potter party?" "Is the party still on?" "I heard a rumor that the party was still on?"

Oh yes, the party was definitely still happening! And it certainly looked like people were still going to show up!

And happen it did: I reckon we had about 300 people turn up overall. Some of the small kids came early, made treasure chests and wormy bookmarks, and then went home before midnight. Some people didn't show up until 11:45 p.m. But the party happened, and it worked, and everyone had a fabulous time.

We set some tables up on the sidewalk for all of the crafts and snacks. The staff, and extended staff family, wandered around (in costume, of course) handing out slimy lizards, squishy frogs, and colorful cupcakes. We had oil lamps on the sidewalk and candles in the store. My husband brought in his motorbike and aimed the headlight at the festivities, and many people brought their own torches. People liked the ambiance of almost total darkness although, personally, I would have given an awful lot to just get the air conditioner working!

By 1:15 a.m. everyone was gone. I locked up and toddled over to my car ... only to sprint back to the store two seconds later when I realized that I had forgotten my book! After all, let's not forget, it's all about the book!

It's Saturday now, about midday, and no, we are not opening the store today. Still no electricity in town, and we are all exhausted. In fact, now that I have written this, I am going back to bed. I have the book, a bag of chocolate buttons, and air conditioning!

All is good!

Hannah Willmott runs the Bermuda Book Store in Hamilton, Bermuda.

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