More and more often, natural disasters from summer hurricanes to winter snow storms don’t blow through without leaving injuries and deaths in their wake — not from the event itself, but from misusing power generators to keep the lights on when the power goes out. After Hurricane Katrina left much of the Gulf Coast in the dark last year, a dozen deaths and scores of carbon monoxide (CO) poisonings were blamed on portable gas-fired generators in the hands of those unfamiliar with their proper use. Teva Olowahu Sandals for Women

An early winter snowstorm in the Buffalo, NY area just months ago turned out the lights for hundreds of thousands of residents and half the six storm-related deaths were attributed to CO poisoning from gas fired portable generators. Area hospitals reported dozens of cases of CO poisonings caused by the appliances. After a snow storm with hurricane force winds knocked out power to 1.5 million customers in the Pacific Northwest, including homes and businesses, hospital officials said CO poisonings reached “epidemic” levels. Just a week before Christmas, at least one man died of inhaling the colorless, odorless gas, more than a hundred were treated at area hospitals and dozens were sent to pressurized hyperbaric chambers which forced oxygen into their blood.

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