Ike

Hurricane Ike struck the tristate area on Sunday afternoon. When I drove to church, I noticed the higher than normal wind, and thought "This must be the remnant of Ike. How fun!" During church the doors in the foyer blew open several times, but still we all thought "How funny we're having such high winds!" It stopped being fun during Sunday school when the power flicked once. Warily, we all trained our eyes on the ceiling lights and held our collective breaths. The building heaved a huge sigh of relief when the power flickered a second time, then surged to life again. All things being equal, the third time was once again the charm. The third time that the power flickered off on Sunday afternoon, it went off to stay. I was standing in the hallway at church, and immediately threw open the doors to the nursery for the small children. Most of the members of our ward were safely ensconced in rooms on the perimeter of the building, and as such had ample lighting even without electricity. The smallest and most fearful in our ward, though, were trapped in a large room at the center of the church without light or window to chase away the dark. While I threw open the door on my side of the room, one of the other leaders threw open the door on the other side, and between the two there was provided enough weak light to shepherd the terrified children safely into a smaller, but windowed, room. Everyone chose to stay at church for the duration of our meetings, and there was much speculation as to the severity of the storm, and the vastness of the power outage. One member had a Blackberry with him, and word quickly circulated that he was able to locate a high wind advisory in our area until 6pm Sunday evening.

When the meeting ended at 4, I drove slowly home. I chose to drive home on more busy, populated streets, not wanting to chance a limb from the more residential roads I normally drive obstructing my route. Every traffic light, every store, every restaurant was eerily dark. The streets were teeming with carloads of people--searching for food, for gas, for ice. By the time I reached my home, it was clear that this was not a normal power outage. The amount of limbs and branches I saw laying on power lines made my hope for a quick restoration of electricity dim. By the time I braved the streets again early Monday morning, school had been canceled until further notice, and commodities such as gasoline, batteries, and frozen food had become scarce. I managed to locate a gas station that was open and had not yet run out of fuel, and after waiting in a long line I was able to refill my minivan. While inside the gas station, I also found a car charger for my cell phone, which had completely died the night before. I also found a grocery store that was open, but my search for more batteries, flashlights, and candles was in vain. There was not a D cell battery, a flashlight, or a single unscented candle to be found. I settled for a package of AA batteries and a quartet of vanilla scented votives. Later in the day I ventured out yet again, and was blessed enough to snag the only remaining propane lantern in the whole of the monstrous grocery store. I also purchased the very last four propane canisters to run the lantern. A journey to another store found a quickly dwindling supply of ice, and the last cooler on the shelf. Still not a single D cell to be found. I purchased both ice and coolers, along with a few grocery staples, and went back home to transfer the contents of my refrigerator to the two large coolers.

Here I sit, a full 48 hours after the power first flickered out, accessing the Internet at the local McDonald's. All in all, this has been an adventure. The children in my neighborhood are all home, and my children have had a wonderful time playing with friends. There has been a large community of people gathered on the front lawns at all times, and the friendship with neighbors has been strengthened. The temperatures have hovered around 70 degrees with a reasonable amount of humidity, so even without air conditioning we are all still comfortable The rumor is that the power won't be restored in my neighborhood until Saturday. I hesitate still to open my freezer, fearful for what I might find. I am hopeful that if the power is restored sometime today or tomorrow, then my meats might survive the outage. If rumor holds true, however, I'm sure that all will be lost. Even still, I count myself lucky that I am not a restaurant owner, a store owner, or a school employee. The amount of food I will surely throw out pales in comparison to what those people will lose. Life without electricity is inconvenient, but an adventure all the same.