Small Gift, Big Impact

Little charger saves the day

By Leah Etling on Dec 30, 2013 in People

Colleen Gray admits that when a frigid ice storm struck her hometown of Toronto, Ontario a few days before Christmas, she wasn’t prepared.

“I had no flashlight, candles, tasty emergency food,” said the Business Applications Leader for Real Estate Management Services, a Yardi client. Her apartment lost power on Dec. 21 around 10 p.m.

Nor did she realize that power was going to be out for more than three full days. The storm knocked out electricity and other services to 300,000 Toronto residents, and a few hundred were still without power as of this writing on Dec. 30.

Anxious to have the most up-to-date information on weather conditions, expectations for the next few days how friends, family and colleagues were doing, Colleen was glued to her iPhone, which she hadn’t charged the night the power went out.

“I was trying to get information from web sites, while at the same time rationing data access as I knew it drained the battery pretty fast,” she told us in an email. But Sunday morning, she was already below 50 percent of her battery and had no idea how much longer it would be out – service wasn’t restored until 6 p.m. on Dec. 24.

Then she remembered – a tiny, battery powered iPhone charger was included in a gift for clients delivered at Yardi’s recent Canadian client appreciation dinner.

“Brilliant!  This gave me enough juice to get through the day and evening. The next day I went to the office and was able to charge up both my iPhone and Portable charger to get me through another night.   It was a tremendous comfort knowing that I wasn’t going to run out of power when the only thing connecting me to information and friends and family was my smart phone .. and Facebook,” says Colleen.

Meanwhile, a tree branch had fallen onto her car, crushing the roof and front windshield of her car. Luckily she was able to walk to a nearby hardware for a flashlight, lantern and batteries. At night, without heat, she and her little dog Charlie huddled before a wood-burning fireplace and under blankets to stay warm. Around 20 percent of the city’s tree canopy was destroyed by frozen branches falling during the storm.

While the storm was still continuing, Colleen emailed Yardi Vice President/General Manager Peter Altobelli to thank him for the charger that had happened to come in so handy. She’s now convinced of why everyone should have an emergency preparedness kit on hand, and adds: “These chargers should now be in everyone’s emergency kit.”