Sunday, February 1, 2009

Storm of 2009

What a week it has been. I have never seen so much ice on everything. Nothing was spared the coating of the slick, cold stuff! Although the trees looked pretty while they glistened on Tuesday, by that evening, the limbs starting breaking and trees started uprooting.

I did not sleep much that night. It was unnerving to hear very loud POPs and then crashes throughout the night. We lost many branches out of our trees in our yard. Everywhere you look in town, there is damage to be seen. It will take us weeks to clean it up.

We lost our electricity on Wednesday a little bit before noon. We had just come in from a lovely walk in the thickly falling snow. We expected the lights to be out a little while--it was out five days total. Before it was all said and done, there would over 1 million people that would love electricity service at some point during the storm.

Although we were out of power for many days, we were much more fortunate than most. We had heat (somewhat), the ability to cook on the stovetop, and hot water. We also had a host of friends who offered warm homes, washing machines and shared their electricity.

Many, many folks inquired to know what we needed and how they could help. It was comforting to know that help was just a phone call away--even from those we didn't know.

Many memories were formed--some we would like to forget and some that we will cherish! Bailing out the sump pumps at all hours of the day and night, playing Jenga by candlelight, eating up the last of the ice cream, sledding down the BIG hill, the girls realizing that you can survive without TV, cooking by flashlight and attempting to walk on ice.

What I will cherish the most is the love and spirit of cooperation that we saw. People being neighborly. Knowing that through it all, being out of electricity is a minor inconvenience. Realizing what all we take for granted.

No comments:

Post a Comment