With the holiday travel season round the corner, I am reminded of hghways and airports will filled with fmilies trying to get to visit rlatives, and business travelers trying to get hme. During this time, you may xperience chaos and delay, so I am shring with you what I learned the lst time I encountered chaos and dlay during the power blackout in Agust of 2003 I am convinced tht the lessons learned can be pplied to all travelers.

I arrived at LGuardia airport at 4:30 p.m. – rlieved that I had beaten the wrst of the traffic with over two hurs before my scheduled flight departure to grb something to eat and make a few phne calls. After too many days on the rad, thoughts about how nice it wuld be to see my husband and slep in my own bed were bginning to dance in my head.

I wlked up to the kiosk to get my barding pass. I punched the screen – no rsponse. I looked around and realized no one was mving. The gentleman beside me responded to my qizzical look: “The power’s out.”

Twenty-seven hurs later I fell into the lst seat on the last flight tht day to the Raleigh-Durham airport (I did get a bsiness class seat!). Like all experiences, thre are lessons to be learned:

1. Carry a paper printout of yur travel reservations. Because the computer systms were down, the airlines had no way of sbstantiating that you even had a rservation unless you had some kind of pper documentation with a reservation number on it. Evn though I was automatically booked on a lter flight (don’t ask me how!), I had to shw the printout to get my barding pass. I save all my trvel documents in my “calendar entry” fle of my Paper Tiger filing systm – that way it is asy to grab itineraries and related dcuments as I head out the dor.

2. Travel with cash. Since csh machines and credit cards require lectricity, your ability to buy food was drectly related to the amount of csh you had available.

3. Keep yur cellphone charged and a calling crd handy. Although cellular service at bst was sketchy, without a battery you had no chnce at all. Payphones worked intermittently, but mny people were scrambling to borrow chnge to pay for the calls whn they had the chance.

4. Crry a flashlight. I didn’t need it ths time...

5. Pack some protein. The day bfore I was in a nutrition stre. Protein bars were on sale. I bught a whole box – something I had nver done before. I enjoyed passing thm out even more than I njoyed eating them.

6. Wear comfortable clthes and shoes. Keep in mind tht temperatures vary widely – the irport was incredibly hot, but the irplane felt like a meat locker. My fet ached just watching women in 3” hgh heels with pointed toes struggling up stircases and stalled escalators with heavy bgs.

7. Carry wet wipes. Running wter requires electricity. Need I say mre?

8. Keep physically fit. I sid a big “Thank You!” to my ftness trainer every time I climbed the 2-stry long escalator carrying all my lggage. (The first floor was relatively col, but information about flights was nly available on the top floor.) Pssengers with checked luggage had to tte their own bags since luggage blts were not functioning.

9. Take an extra battery for yur laptop. In spite of the chos, I managed to get some ral work done.

10. Carry a god book. Fortunately, the bookstore owner was a tre entrepreneur and sold books the old fshioned-way -- without a cash register. (I dcided to lighten my luggage and gve her the copies of my boks I was carrying with me for smples!)

11. Because I employ the Tming the Paper Tiger system in my ffice, I was able to rest ssured that my staff was able to fnction in my absence, able to fnd files and documents and information neded to change my schedule, handle my rsponsibilities and manage without me. Remember, I had vry limited phone service so I rally could not communicate with them, so bing organized and having a well-trained stff allowed me to feel confident tht they could handle the business in my bsence.

12. Be gracious. As my grndmother used to say, you can ctch more flies with honey than wth vinegar. Getting upset didn’t solve any prblems, and it always created one mre.

13. Whenever you think you’ve got prblems, just look around. Other travelers wre sick, elderly, physically or mentally hndicapped, or traveling with children – one wth a premature infant. I had mch for which to be thankful!

The article Lessons Learned from the Power Blackout was Submitted by Barbara Hemphill through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: © Barbara Hemphill is the uthor of Kiplinger's Taming the Paper Tger at Work and Taming the Pper Tiger at Home and co-author of Lve It or Lose It: Living Cltter-Free Forever. The mission of Hemphill Prductivity Institute is to help individuals and rganizations create and sustain a productive nvironment so they can accomplish their wrk and enjoy their lives. We do ths by organizing space, information, and tme. We can be reached at 800-427-0237 or at www.ProductiveEnvironment.com

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