There have been several incidences of copper theft around Boston, one of which resulted in 2 deaths. That was in a power sub station in one of the towns I used to live in. Two guys broke in and zapped themselves when trying to steal the copper. Some monuments of historical significance have been vandalized, also.
RM, I feel your pain. I lived through a couple of shorter power outages in Phx in the summer, with 2 little kids. Spokewrench is right. The valley did not used to be so hot. It used to get cooler at night (before I lived there) like it does in Tucson. Several people I knew in college actually experienced sleeping outside on the porch, with the wet sheets being blown by a fan. This was the first type of evaporative cooling. We had a "cooler" on our first house, along with the AC. It saved a lot of $, but I found it expanded all the wood in the house because of the moisture and it was hard to open and shut doors! We used it in April and May and Sept./Oct. but a lot of people I knew grew up with only a cooler and no AC. I can't imagine that. You are right, it's a health hazzard and definitely worse if we lost power here in the winter, where I could light the fireplace!