I bet most of us never knew there was such a weather phenomenon before last Friday night. While Brian and I were cozied up watching the US Olympic trials last weekend, like a lot of folks around here, we didn't pay much attention to the storm alert scrolling across the top of the screen. We giggled as we backed up the stream to read all of the cities and counties listed. "Wow" We said as we looked at each other and said "guess they couldn't nail down the kill zone". We peeked out the window, saw a nice breeze then disregarded it and got back to our Olympics. It was about 9:30.
Not too long after that the power went off. We looked at each other in question since there was no apparent storm that we could hear. We looked outside and it was an eerie sight. No rain, no thunder, just a the glow of distant lightning and a fierce wind blowing our stars and strips out front. Brian and I stepped out on our porch and found the clouds were high and we couldn't believe how hot the wind was after dark. We went to check on the kids and Abigail seemed wide awake and very nervous. I decided to lay down with her while Brian went back outside. I almost felt like we should be watching for twisters the way it looked but the Bit needed some comfort. She literally shook in bed like a little frightened rabbit. We opened her blinds and watched the wind rip down our street in a weird green sky. We joked and tried to make light of the strange weather outside to cheer her up. It didn't work.
We wound up setting up Brian's laptop in our bed, thankful it had battery life, to let Abigail watch a movie and settle her nerves. The storm didn't last long, maybe 30 or 45 min then it was eerie still and quiet. We texted our friends who we thought would be awake to find out we weren't alone in the power outage. We went bed hot, hopeful we would wake up to the house humming back to life. The temperature outside had to be in the 90's even this late and after all that wind. Chloe didn't sleep much that night so that meant Brian and I didn't sleep much. She kept wandering out of her room saying "I'ya wayer!" Meaning she wanted water, poor kid was hot. I remember multiple times I heard the pitter patter of her feet in her room and we didn't bother to get up each time. We knew she'd find her bed again when she got ready to lay down again.
The next morning we started to get the word that it was a bigger storm then we realized. I knew I had never seen a sky like the night before but we were starting to see this storm was different. Brian debated about going to work but headed over to find the city was a mess as he drove through. He said he had power at his office but a tall strip mall light tower had fallen over onto a parked car in the lot during the storm. Luckily Deana and Greg had left town for the week and had an empty powered house. They offered as they drove out to let us come hang out at their house until power resumed. By mid morning our house was miserable and we decided to take them up on their offer to save some frozen food and get comfortable. I took a cold shower then packed up all the food I could package and headed over to Deana's place. As we left I walked around handing out our phone numbers to the neighbors and learned not many were planning to stay either. The forecast was supposed to hit 102 and that was just not something anyone wanted to endure in still houses. Some were getting last remaining hotel rooms and others were heading to family like us. When we got to Deana's Christine was there too, she also had no power.
We spent the night there. Even though Dee's place had power the phones and cable networks were still down. We finished watching a dvd then sat listening to a poor radio signal in the living room just like it was 1940 and that was the only way to know what was going on. I still didn't sleep much since another band of storms came through and scared the dogs keeping them up several times through the night. Sunday morning we started to learn the word Derecho and I was anxious to reconnect to the world any way we could to learn more. Our cell phones were only partially working and oddly less and less as the day went on. Brian and I left the girls with Grammie and headed out to clean out the fridge and find somewhere with internet access.
We stopped at a local coffee shop and it was wall to wall people. If I had my camera I would have taken a picture of the wall sockets. People had every socket full all over the coffee shop. Each table had people in grubby clothes with their laptops open leaned in stern faced and getting up to date on everything going on. The floors around the tables were littered with chords as they plugged in to charge their phones. Brian and I fortunately found a little table for 2 and each of us plopped down with our his and hers computer companions to reconnect. I was dying to just watch a local news broadcast and see some pictures. Facebook let us know that we had most of our friends online singing the same song as us. Those most pitiful were those with little kids who grew restless and cranky in the heat.
We sat for a while getting really caffeinated from the tiring 36 hrs dealing with this mess. We headed home to a hot house and ticked off cats to deal with the fridge. The street was deserted except for a few noisy generators humming behind the lucky houses who had obtained them. We gutted the remaining food items and I went to work with bleach and baking soda. I had a spanking new fridge and freezer when I was done. We took more cold showers (by choice, we still had hot water w/ a gas water heater) then headed back to Deana's house.
By Sunday night we were getting word that they were working in our neighborhood. Brian drove back over to check and stopped to talk with some power workers near our street. He thanked them for their hard work and they said how much they appreciated his kindness. Evidently the last lady who stopped cussed them out. They were a team up from Alabama and the truck was here from Tennessee.
We got the word by 8 0'clock that it was back on. With a loud cheer we started to pack up and head home. I was so relieved since I had to head to work at 0630 Monday morning. The house was still very hot but we didn't mind. We knew the a/c would get caught up by morning.
At work folks were tense and well, just grumpy quite frankly. So many people walked across the bridge from the parking garage with heads hung low and wet hair. Already it was proving to be another blazing hot day and the sun wasn't even up yet. Some nurses had been using one of our labor rooms to shower in once they got in to work. Even my patients were cranky (and no! they aren't always on my floor). If people had power then they had a house full of friends and family staying with them who didn't. Most people had minimal damage but lost all their food. If it wasn't 100 degrees all weekend it would have been much better. It's usually so much more mild here. It was really poor timing that our thermometers reached over 100 when no one could get cool. I finished my shift then left with word that Sue had found mom and dad a generator in Chesapeake and had driven it mid state to meet up with them.
Brian and I took the girls to dinner then headed out to mom and dads to help them toss food and set up the generator. It was a big job. Poor dad loves to shop and Sams Wholesale and had a deep freezer full of partially thawed bags of meat and groceries. It was money down the drain. We sorted out some things we could salvage while the girls kept quiet, sensing the tension in the air, at a table in mom's dark basement. Brian pumped dad full of water desperately trying to get him hydrated and we all got some order in progress before we called it a night. We took bags full of beef and chicken back to our working kitchen to cook up what meat we could save. I hit the pillow hard after 10, it'd been another long hot day but thankful we were able to offer some help to mom and dad. I struggled with some guilt and tears that we hadn't gotten over there sooner to help them. Live and learn.
It's been a long hot week. A weird week of knowing how truly unprepared we were for an emergency and pleased to see the humanity tested and shown in our little city. We learned a lot. We now know we have no 9 volt batteries, which is what EVERY radio evidently runs on. Cell phones fail when everyone and their brother is using them and transmitters are down. We learned who are true friends are that we can reach out to in trouble and equally those who feel comfortable to reach out to us. We learned how strange it feels to loose touch with current events and how much we really depend on technology. We learned that cities run out of basics like bagged ice, gasoline and generators as we witnessed long lines for each of these items. That your children count on you keeping calm and their wide eyes need to see your's as a comfort and what a challenge that is when you want to loose it. That people pull together and show their true colors, be them good or bad in an emergency. And that above it all God is still in control of it all, every detail and that is and always will be my greatest comfort and strength.
We can all learn lessons as we admire people like mom's 89 yr old friend. Mom had spoken with her but went to see her and pick her up yesterday. She volunteers every week at our local rescue mission teaching God's word to homeless drug addicts. When mom got to her house she had 6 huge trees down in her front yard, including one across her front door. Also to find they had had a small fire ignite in one of their rooms. "I can't believe you didn't mention the damage to your home or the fire when I spoke with you!" my mom exclaimed when she got inside. "well, God's taking care of us and at my age you just don't fret too much anymore". What a testimony. We should all just take God's hand so graciously when trouble strikes shouldn't we!?
Now I have to go clean up my house and get ready. Mom and dad are coming for dinner and showers later. At least we have plenty of meat to eat up! :)
(these photos were uploaded from a local news site from people capturing damage in the area)
