Storm Front

Thursday: a storm front came through town yesterday shortly after 4 PM. Powerful winds took down trees all over the city. Some trees ended up on automobiles or houses. It was awesome to watch. Dark clouds rolled in from the west looking like the end of the world was at hand. Trees roiled in the wind, their limbs bending farther than I thought they should be able to bend. I watched all kinds of debris fly across my yard: leaves, small limbs, soda cans, paper, flower pots – anything that wasn’t nailed down. I opened my front door and stepped onto the porch; the wind pushed me back – hard. When tree limbs fell, so did power lines, and I was soon without electricity and Internet service. Without electricity, my electric stove didn’t work so cooking was problematic. I have an old gas grill in my garage, so I fired it up, put a cast-iron frying pan on the grill, removed a package of egg rolls from the fridge, and heated them in the pan. Voila! Dinner. I ate four and tossed one.

After the storm passed, the sun came out and the air turned cool. Before the storm, the temperature had been 95° F. After the storm, the temperature was in the upper 60s. Home generators droned at several nearby houses. I brought my trash cart to the front yard and began raking leaves, limbs, twigs, sticks, and other detritus from my lawn. I spent an hour cleaning up my front yard – and I don’t even have a tree in my yard. When I finished, my 45 gallon trash container was completely filled with bits of trees. I found a sign from a nearby daycare and lugged it back to the owners, who were at the daycare inspecting for damage. They were happy to get their sign back.

After finishing the yard cleanup, I stayed outside talking with neighbors until dusk. Then I went inside and lit a couple of candles on the living room mantle. In the kitchen, I turned on an electric lantern and placed it on the stovetop. It’s florescent tubes glared harshly compared to the warm glow of the candles. I sat in my chair in the dimly lit living room, sipping a drink and thinking many thoughts. When I went to bed at 11 PM, the electricity was still off.

Friday: it’s a new day. My electric power is back on (so I can sit at my computer and write), but not surprisingly my Internet service is still off. It may take another day or two before service is restored. Trucks and front-end loaders trundle around town, cleaning up the aftermath of the storm. I go outside early and begin mowing my yard. Near a corner of my house I spot this little fellow who, despite the high winds, somehow managed to avoid becoming a squishy black spot on the wall:

Most of us were lucky. Most of us didn’t have a tree fall on our property. Most of us didn’t lose a roof or shingles. But for an unlucky few of us, it’s a big payday for roofers and tree removal services. And for a very few, luck couldn’t get any worse.

After lunch, I checked and found that my Internet service was still down. So I whipped up a simple little app to tell me when service is restored. It looks like this:

When service is restored, “DOWN” will change to “UP” and a bell sound will play. At least, that’s the plan. I’m ready for Internet service to be restored. Just waiting on you, Comcast.

 

 

 

(Time passes…)

There it goes, DOWN changed to UP and the bell sounded. I’m back online.

According to local news, central Virginia was hit hard. A little boy visiting Richmond’s Maymont Park on a family outing was killed when a tree fell on him. Three other people were killed by the storm. My neighbor, an X-ray technician at a local hospital, said one of her patients came in with a compound fracture of a femur; he was cutting up a fallen tree when something went wrong. He made splints and put them on his leg with duct tape and made his way to the hospital.

I was lucky. For me, the storm was only a few hours of inconvenience. Can’t complain about that.