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5 Unusual Ways Sandy Victims Are Charging Cellphones (See the Photos)

Nov. 1, 2012 1:11pm

TheBlaze has already brought you some tips for making cellphone power last as long as possible. But as many along the East Coast are still without power after Hurricane Sandy left Monday night, battery conservation efforts are just not enough anymore.

This is where New Yorkers and others without electricity are getting creative. We’ve pulled together photos from a few novel ways and locations that those affected by the storm have found to juice up their gadgets — beyond the usual car charging activity.

  • Group charging: Some places like Starbucks, drug stores, banks and even at a news truck have been gathering points for those hooking up to multi-plug power strips.
New Yorkers Find Ways to Charge Gadgets Without Home Power

People charge their devices at a free charging station offered by a 7-11 store in an area with power in Manhattan. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

New Yorkers Find Ways to Charge Gadgets Without Home Power

People charge their phones at a mobile charging station. (Photo: Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

  • Taking it to the streets: Although you might think outlets are hard to come by, they could actually be lining city streets. In desperation, some have found that lamp posts have a small metal flap that when unscrewed reveals a glorious outlet. Business Insider’s Rob Wile saw it happening first hand 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. Other lamp posts without outlets have reportedly been hot-wired according to the New York Post, to charge devices. The Post reports a former homeless man who used to do this a lot saying he stopped after he received an electrical shock. It reports DOT spokesman Nicholas Mosquera saying tampering with the wires could be dangerous.
New Yorkers Find Ways to Charge Gadgets Without Home Power

A man is seen hooked up to a lamp post outlet. (Photo: Rob Wile/Business Insider)

New Yorkers Find Ways to Charge Gadgets Without Home Power

Here’s a look at such an outlet. (Photo: Rob Wile/Business Insider)

  • Trunk charger: The Huffington Post’s Joe Van Brussel caught a group of New Yorkers crouched around an outlet they found screwed into the trunk of a tree.
New Yorkers Find Ways to Charge Gadgets Without Home Power

Sometimes power sources are found in unlikely locations. (Photo: Joe Van Brussel/Huffington Post)

  • Loiter while you still can: Any buildings with a visible outlet outside of it are seeing crowds gathered like campers around a warm fire.
New Yorkers Find Ways to Charge Gadgets Without Home Power

New Yorkers charging outside a FedEx outlet. (Photo: Flickr/edenpictures)

  • Digital Good Samaritans: Some neighbors are even opening their homes as charging stations (see a picture here).
New Yorkers Find Ways to Charge Gadgets Without Home Power

A Blaze reader from Hoboken, N.J., sent us this photo of a makeshift charging station outside someone’s home.

 

Until the day comes when your own footsteps can power your cellphone, kudos to those finding interesting ways to keep gadgets running in the mean time.

If you have photos of innovative cellphone charging methods that you’d like to share, then them to lklimas@theblaze.com. 

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Comments (77)

1 2
  • mgcre
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 6:00pm

    If they were starting a fire with two sticks, I might have been impressed.

    But all they are doing is plugging in.

    Report this comment

    mgcre  
    • Eastinfection
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 9:05pm

      No doubt…

      I was expecting solar panels and treadmills….

      Report this comment

      Eastinfection  
    • bobdog19006
      Posted on November 2, 2012 at 12:06am

      I wonder how many realized that all ya need is a car charger?

      Actually, under New Jersey rules, all you need to do is jack a car that has one. Might as well siphon off all the gas while you’re at it.

      Report this comment

      bobdog19006  
    • IOUQuidProQuo
      Posted on November 2, 2012 at 12:53am

      Ok . . . so NOW we have VAMPIRE$ sucking the juice for FREE??? Now are these the OCCUPY WALLSTREET 99ers who are gaming the GOVT system? LMAO – genius, I plan on hooking up my VOLT to lamp posts along I95. Duh – shaft the TAXPAYER again. FREE, FREE4ME, lean FORWARD, and grab your ankles if POTU$ BH Obama wins Nov 6.

      NYC Mayor Bloomberg will get COIN OPERATED light post outlets installed NOV 7! Nothing is ever FREE in NYC (or anywhere!). OccupyGOVTOutlet$ = 4 more years of POTU$ and we will be a THIRD WORLD Country – WATCH movie 2016 = > Obama’s America

      Report this comment

      IOUQuidProQuo  
    • luisperezphd
      Posted on November 2, 2012 at 8:55pm

      I ended up powering a USB hub using AA batteries and then connecting my phone to it. I was able to charge a Samsung Galaxy. Luckily I had a bunch of batteries at home and several stores still had many in stock. I wrote about it on my blog, I’ll post a picture today: http://www.simplygoodcode.com/2012/11/surviving-hurricane-sandy-charging-my.html

      Report this comment

      luisperezphd  
  • Rob
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:37pm

    How would those huge and expensive wind turbines they wanted to put out in the ocean have held up to this storm?

    Report this comment

    Rob  
  • neoconpunk
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:13pm

    What?!? Eliminating those coal fired power plants didn’t work??? Hey, New York City! Hows those windmills and solar panels working out for you? You’d give your right arm for some good old fashioned carbon fuel right now. Aren’t you glad your government did the important things like banning “large sugary drinks”?

    Report this comment

    neoconpunk  
    • shimauma42
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:23pm

      LOLS don’t bother to rub it in their faces like that, they are already used to the smell of being wrong…

      Report this comment

      shimauma42  
    • Uncle Dave
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 5:23pm

      Jonesin’ for a charge … “Dude, ya got any 110?? … I just need a little.” How sad we homans have become. “Dude, can I just get on your facebook for, like, a minute??” NO! Go read a book!
      Now I know someone is going to say, what about emergencies? Ya, OK, one small exception … then SAVE YOUR CHARGE!

      P.S. New Yorkers “found” an outlet by a tree trunk?? Hay! Somebody is paying that bill!! Did you ask, or are your stealing electric?

      Report this comment

      Uncle Dave  
    • grayling646
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 11:53pm

      Uncle Dave
      The outlet on the tree trunk looked temporary as though some one tied into their own house or business power and ran it out to the tree so passers by could use it. If that’s the case it’s simply means that some stranger was helping other people. Something you evidently don’t know anything about.

      Report this comment

      grayling646  
    • zamboro
      Posted on November 3, 2012 at 9:52pm

      If the power lines are destroyed, power will be lost regardless of whether it is generated by coal power plants or renewables.

      The primary difference is that a flooded power plant becomes a toxic hazard to it’s surroundings in addition to being destroyed, pending repair.

      The question arises, why are you so anti-technology? Do you want to eliminate new technologies and regress backwards to more primitive times or something? I only ever see conservatives attacking technological progress like electric cars, solar, wind and so on. It’s not just anti-technology, it’s anti-future. Like they want us to live in the stone age.

      Report this comment

      zamboro  
  • Tex Expatriate
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:10pm

    Very cool, indeed, but I still contend that left to their own, out of their NYC sewer and in the real world, New yorkers would curl up and die. So would most of the others who live in thenortheast tier of states.

    Report this comment

    Tex Expatriate  
    • neoconpunk
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:19pm

      Yup. I see no creativity here. They’re just borrowing or stealing other people’s power. This hurricane was predicted for WEEKS and these knuckleheads are still unprepared. City folk are generally useless in a crisis. They’re brains are mush from having everything done for them, like where they can smoke to how big of a drink they can have. Bunch of Sheeple.

      Report this comment

      neoconpunk  
    • Eastinfection
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:51pm

      TEX….

      Really? .. Then why is it that tons of “Yankees” move to Texas and do just fine while Texas transplants to the Northeast lose their freikin marbles?

      Report this comment

      Eastinfection  
    • Stoneez
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 5:42pm

      ……it only gets better when you move FROM a hell hole dimwit. Moving TO a hell hole is the problem. Geez

      Report this comment

      Stoneez  
    • Eastinfection
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 6:01pm

      STONEEZ…

      thank you for illustrating my point…

      TEX claimed people from the Northeast would “curl up and die” if they relocated…
      when it’s just the opposite.
      Living in a “hellhole” toughens you up.

      Report this comment

      Eastinfection  
    • Platonician
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 6:33pm

      @Eastinfection
      “Living in a “hellhole” toughens you up.”
      but at a terrible price: it makes you dirty and evil.

      Report this comment

      Platonician  
    • Eastinfection
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 8:02pm

      PLATO…

      That awfully presumptuous…

      There are millions of clean, hardworking people in the Northeast that adhere firmly to Judea- Christian ethics…
      Living in the Northeast may lend itself to cynicism- but it’s hardly evil..
      I’ve lived in the South for about 12 years now.. the percentage of selfish, harmful people here is comparable to up north… just less “in your face”.

      Report this comment

      Eastinfection  
  • scrudge
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:05pm

    Ah Yes….. Oh MY…. what are those idiots going to do… how can they possibly survive with out those cells stuck in their ears… no hope for the brain dead…. soon T V ambulance chasers will be suing for the brain cancer victoms…. lets see if oBOZO gets his backside sued for giving those cells to the give me folks

    Report this comment

    scrudge  
  • Black Manta
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 3:26pm

    You damn americans…what the hell are you gonna do when you really can’t use anything?

    Report this comment

    Black Manta  
    • SlyOldDog
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 3:38pm

      Why, we’ll come, bomb the smithereens out of you, take all your phone charging cords, declare victory, and leave you to Al Qaida. Is that what you wanted to hear, moron?

      Report this comment

      SlyOldDog  
    • SlyOldDog
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 3:54pm

      Come on, “Black Manta,” let’s hear from you and your “damn Americans” sentiment. Who are you? A little 125-pound gamer dweeb with piercings and tats in your mama’s attic, and who uses a gravitar that’s supposed to make us think you’re some big badass?

      Who needs to post something like that to validate himself?

      You’ve got nothing but your little 19-year-old mouth. You take adolescent rebellion to an art and love to troll places like this. Go back to your gamer world and skateboards.

      Report this comment

      SlyOldDog  
    • ForMyKidsVA
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:01pm

      SLYOLDDOG,

      That about sums it up. Never underestimate Americans!

      Report this comment

      ForMyKidsVA  
    • neoconpunk
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:07pm

      That’s easy. We invade those countries that still have electrical power. France will surrender first, we’ll then drain the atlantic ocean and use whale and seal blubber to insulate the electrical wires we run back the the united states so we can power our industrial might. We will then use the windmills to blow the smog back over to europe.

      Report this comment

      neoconpunk  
    • pitboss711
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:13pm

      Black Manta – And, how much foreign aid have us “damn Americans” given to your country in the past ten-years or so?

      Report this comment

      pitboss711  
    • MaxineH20Sux
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 9:36pm

      I have Jesus on my side! Do you?

      Report this comment

      MaxineH20Sux  
    • thorkyl
      Posted on November 2, 2012 at 9:26am

      Simple, we just take our Evil black gas actuated sporting rifle and our six guns, lever guns and our 250 – 500 pounds of ammo and survive.

      This is what we do, this is how our nation was founded, this is how we threw the brits out in the 1700′s and why Japan did not want to envade in the 40′s.

      There are more civilian owen firearms than our military has
      This is why we are free and you are not.

      Report this comment

      thorkyl  
    • kindling
      Posted on November 13, 2012 at 12:41am

      we don’t use cell phones, or a TV hooked to the world. We use the computer to read email and the Blaze and a few other news sites. We grow our own food for the most part and laugh at people that walk around with a cell connected to their head.

      Report this comment

      kindling  
  • tj1961
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 3:13pm

    I have an inverter to get110 AC from my car…. good for 175 watts charge cell phones, run a small TV of laptop. Not enough juice for a fridge, that’s where the coolers come …..

    Report this comment

    tj1961  
    • stumpy68
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:02pm

      a small gas powered fridge is an option also

      Report this comment

      stumpy68  
    • neoconpunk
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 4:10pm

      Amen. All you need is an inverter and a 12v car battery. This would be a good use for a Chevy Volt. Just cover the little thing in outlets and park it on the street. You’d have to charge your phone quick before it goes up in flames.

      Report this comment

      neoconpunk  
  • schroeder123
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 3:03pm

    The sign of progress.

    Report this comment

    schroeder123  
  • PeteHDO
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 2:45pm

    My go to resource for almost all of my needs. Amazon!! I know this won’t help many right now but I use it camping and have it ready at home. A power invertor, two to four marine twelve volt batteries, and a couple of portable solar panels. Read the reviews and comments, pay attention to your watt/amp requirements you would be surprised what you can power for four to five days without getting your batteries fully recharged. Some extra propane tanks for your gas grill an inverter you can get along just fine if you have water and a food that you can adapt to outdoor cooking. Oh yea a Boy Scout Manual is a great resource

    Report this comment

    PeteHDO  
  • Watermain
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 2:44pm

    Refreshing to see the note posted letting people charge their phone outside someone’s home.

    Report this comment

    Watermain  
  • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 2:28pm

    Come on GREENIES! Why aren’t you using that wind and solar energy you are so proud about? What? Doesn’t work when it’s cloudy? There’s no wind today? My gasoline generator is running just fine.
    You coal-fired power-plant is what is providing that energy to those outlets, yet you damn them every chance you get. Seems to me that you take these things for granted and don’t think these things through.

    Report this comment

    Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
  • Ghandi was a Republican
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 2:10pm

    Obama is a racist– Look at whitey struggling to get by while obama flies around in his Corporate jet (AF-1)..
    Seriously- I read that during Katrina only flipped “obama” and “whitey” to update.

    Report this comment

    Ghandi was a Republican  
  • coyote1hell
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:59pm

    This lack of eletrical power will be more wide spread, if the Green-Muslim is re-elected, don’t vote for this “Fool”..

    Report this comment

    coyote1hell  
  • AfghanVetUSA
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:56pm

    Sad that this many people are unprepared for this. There are dozens of cell phone chargers that are solar powered, battery powered or manually powered. Hopefully people use this storm as a learning experience for the future. It’s time for everyone to start prepping!

    Report this comment

    AfghanVetUSA  
  • kevinj319
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:56pm

    They’ve found some inventive ways to steal electricity.

    Report this comment

    kevinj319  
  • floridareader
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:56pm

    People in the Northeast are not used to face the aftermath of hurricanes. This is the second year in a row to be hit by one of this storms. So for future climate threats, besides water, LED flashlights and food, it would be good to have extra mobile phones batteries charged and packed in zip-lock bags.

    Report this comment

    floridareader  
  • Watchdog826
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:53pm

    What no green energy chargers supplied from all of these leftest to help the people in need?
    What a shock !!!!!!!!!!!!

    Report this comment

    Watchdog826  
  • copterbox
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:50pm

    I bought one of these solar phone chargers a few months ago. It has a battery that will allow you to charge when you’re not in the sun:
    http://www.extremeoutfitters.us/powertravellersoloarmonkeyadventurer.aspx

    Report this comment

    copterbox  
    • Abigail Adams
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 2:03pm

      I saw something like that at Costco once but I didn’t have funds for it at the time. It’s a good thing to have. I should pick one up soon.

      Report this comment

      Abigail Adams  
    • copterbox
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 2:32pm

      Indeed. I love mine. It can also be charged via wall charger or any USB source in the event you need to charge it indoors at night for a trip the next day.

      Report this comment

      copterbox  
  • Dont-hate-on-me-2
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:38pm

    Well I understand loss of power and need a charge. I have a back-up battery for jump starting cars. It has a DC plug output and it is great to be prepared. I see most of these people stealing power. I give credit to those who are helping by opening there homes way to go. I know they gotta do what they gotta do have to have there Iphones right?

    Report this comment

    Dont-hate-on-me-2  
  • Individualism
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:38pm

    Obama would get some traction if he gave out free phones again at the sandy hit areas.

    Report this comment

    Individualism  
  • chips1
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:34pm

    Americans always find an answer to a problem. Obama had better pass more mandates to prevent thinking. He had better do it by Jan 20th, or he is out of luck.

    Report this comment

    chips1  
  • AngelOnline
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:26pm

    So, do you think they understand the importance of coal yet?

    Report this comment

    AngelOnline  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:25pm

    New Yorkers are also finding unique ways of acquiring TVs and liquor.
    http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/looters-target-coney-island-sandy-article-1.1195080

    Report this comment

    Gonzo  
    • chkiaar
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 2:00pm

      Funny, nothing on the news mentioning looting. Remember Katrina? That’s all you saw. I give the East Coast till this weekend before all hell breaks loose if supplies don’t start arriving.

      Report this comment

      chkiaar  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 2:42pm

      That’s my point, I think our New York resident editors are sugar coating things a bit.

      Report this comment

      Gonzo  
    • Watermain
      Posted on November 1, 2012 at 2:47pm

      Great picture of the looter. Looks like he slipped while carrying a large package and was accidentally run over by the guys walking with him.

      Report this comment

      Watermain  
  • Hodmokrin
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:24pm

    Most chargers run about 5V @ 800mA. Anyone with an inquiring electrical mind would know several double or triple “a” batteries could be wired in series to produce the desired voltage to charge your phone. (you would have to cut the wire form your charger, and wire it to the batteries.)

    Report this comment

    Hodmokrin  
  • N37BU6
    Posted on November 1, 2012 at 1:23pm

    Lemons + zinc + copper, anyone?

    :D

    Report this comment

    N37BU6  
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