September is usually uneventful here in Ohio...as is pretty much every month. However, September of 2008 will go down in infamy as being the windiest on record. On Sunday, September 14, the remains of Hurricane Ike blew through our area and knocked out power to about 330,000 people in the Dayton area. In other words, everybody.
I have never, ever heard the wind howl like this. Ever. And it wasn't just one strong gust every now and then. I'm talking a constant wind of nearly 50 miles per hour, even gusting as high as 75. This went on for hours. The wind started about 10am that day, we lost power at 1pm and it finally stopped howling at about 6pm.
Thankfully, my house was spared any wind damage, save for my big satellite dish which was blown out of alignment. Mother and father's house was similarly undamaged.
Fig. 1: Misaligned Satellite Dish.
I have never, ever heard the wind howl like this. Ever. And it wasn't just one strong gust every now and then. I'm talking a constant wind of nearly 50 miles per hour, even gusting as high as 75. This went on for hours. The wind started about 10am that day, we lost power at 1pm and it finally stopped howling at about 6pm.
Thankfully, my house was spared any wind damage, save for my big satellite dish which was blown out of alignment. Mother and father's house was similarly undamaged.
Fig. 1: Misaligned Satellite Dish.It is not that big of a deal because it wouldn't align properly where it was anyhow so I moved it back to the bird feeder post nearer the ground.
Lots of trees suffered in the storm, which was the major cause of the power outages.
Fig. 2: Tree limbs in my neighbor's yard.
Lots of trees suffered in the storm, which was the major cause of the power outages.
Fig. 2: Tree limbs in my neighbor's yard.The trees belonging to my backyard neighbor were the hardest hit. The wind stripped the tree nearly bare and tore off a number of limbs.
Fig. 3: A limb in my parent's backyard.
We were without power for nearly seven (7!) days. Most of the line crews from around here had been dispatched to the ravaged areas of Texas after the hurricane proper took out electric down there. No one expected such a savage windstorm to come through our area.
Fig. 4: The view between my parent's
house (left) and mine (right).
Fig. 3: A limb in my parent's backyard.We were without power for nearly seven (7!) days. Most of the line crews from around here had been dispatched to the ravaged areas of Texas after the hurricane proper took out electric down there. No one expected such a savage windstorm to come through our area.
Fig. 4: The view between my parent'shouse (left) and mine (right).
We didn't expect the power to be out for so long. Thankfully, we had some rather cool days after the storm blew through, so I left the windows open. Sleeping with the windows open all night was actually pretty terrific!
At the second day I had to clean out my fridge and freezer.
Fig. 5: My empty fridge.
All I had left was some mustard, pickles, microwave popcorn, bottled water, film, batteries and my stash of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I threw out some mayonnaise, frozen chicken pot pies, mini pizzas and hot pockets. Hey, I'm a bachelor...you expect me to have actual food? I used this time to actually do a good clean on the fridge, too, which was convenient.
Mother and father were hit harder in this regard. They ended up throwing out two new gallons of milk, lots of new frozen stuff, lunchmeat and bacon and more. They had just gone to the store that Saturday! Needless to say, we ate out nearly every night. Well, at the restaurants that had power. Most of the nearby joints were without power for the duration, too.
The phone company had set up a number of generators and power trucks at their central offices and tandems to keep the phone lines powered. There were so many traffic signals without power that the city did not have enough portable stop signs to go around. Luckily, people were doing right and treating them as four-way stops like they should.
I think I dealt with the situation pretty well. I didn't have internet, which was driving me crazy, but I took it in stride. I would take my iPod, laptop and cell phone to work to charge them and when I got home I would play solitaire or pinball until my battery died, then I would listen to music or watch videos on my iPod until time for bed. I had to use my cell phone as an alarm clock so I could get up on time. Taking showers by flashlight really isn't much different. At least I had hot water...behold the power and glory of natural gas!
Fig. 6: My house, before and after the power outage.
Fig. 7: My house, during the power outage.
Mother, however, was a different story. I thought that she was going to have a breakdown. I'm serious, she was getting worse every day; getting closer to that edge that once you cross you can never come back. She was getting mad at me because I was dealing with the situation in a calm, cool manner as if it was no big deal. She was unusually salty at work and would severely admonish people who called in because they had no power.
I saw no reason to get all worked up. Sure it was annoying and I would rather it not happen, but it did, so there. She did not see it that way. By day three, she was ready to do violence to anyone from the power company. By day five, she was ready to kill for a generator. More than once she was near tears. I can't say as I blame her, she is sensitive and when out of her comfortable element she doesn't know how to react. Afterward she said that she was not good in a personal crisis. She's right.
At the second day I had to clean out my fridge and freezer.
Fig. 5: My empty fridge.All I had left was some mustard, pickles, microwave popcorn, bottled water, film, batteries and my stash of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I threw out some mayonnaise, frozen chicken pot pies, mini pizzas and hot pockets. Hey, I'm a bachelor...you expect me to have actual food? I used this time to actually do a good clean on the fridge, too, which was convenient.
Mother and father were hit harder in this regard. They ended up throwing out two new gallons of milk, lots of new frozen stuff, lunchmeat and bacon and more. They had just gone to the store that Saturday! Needless to say, we ate out nearly every night. Well, at the restaurants that had power. Most of the nearby joints were without power for the duration, too.
The phone company had set up a number of generators and power trucks at their central offices and tandems to keep the phone lines powered. There were so many traffic signals without power that the city did not have enough portable stop signs to go around. Luckily, people were doing right and treating them as four-way stops like they should.
I think I dealt with the situation pretty well. I didn't have internet, which was driving me crazy, but I took it in stride. I would take my iPod, laptop and cell phone to work to charge them and when I got home I would play solitaire or pinball until my battery died, then I would listen to music or watch videos on my iPod until time for bed. I had to use my cell phone as an alarm clock so I could get up on time. Taking showers by flashlight really isn't much different. At least I had hot water...behold the power and glory of natural gas!
Fig. 6: My house, before and after the power outage.
Fig. 7: My house, during the power outage.I saw no reason to get all worked up. Sure it was annoying and I would rather it not happen, but it did, so there. She did not see it that way. By day three, she was ready to do violence to anyone from the power company. By day five, she was ready to kill for a generator. More than once she was near tears. I can't say as I blame her, she is sensitive and when out of her comfortable element she doesn't know how to react. Afterward she said that she was not good in a personal crisis. She's right.
2 comments:
Seven days without power sounds pretty hard to accept. It does give one unique insight into how life would be if suddenly we all lost electricity. I'm thinking we need to have more actual books and canned food on hand. ;-)
Still, I love strong wind and rain. It's rather exciting.
It was interesting to analyze how we reacted to this situation after it was all said and done.
Mother apologized to me profusely for treating me so bad during the outage. She really wasn't too bad, but her stress level was off the charts. She said she was not good in a crisis like this, and I pointed out to her that it really was not a "crisis" but more of an extended annoyance. We still had a roof over our heads, still had phone service and water. Others in the area were not so lucky...many people have well water and without power there was no power to the water pump.
She is, however, great in a crisis like what she would experience at the nursing home where she works. They've been through everything from tornadoes to fires to termite invasions, and she kept her cool and made everything work.
You are correct when you say we need more books and canned food! I keep very little food on hand here at home, mother has a small amount of canned foods the she keeps on hand. But we'd not know how to cook it! Likewise, I have lots of books but it never occurred to me to pick one up and start reading.
It just goes to show how complacent we have become and how unprepared we are for unexpected situations.
While I can't say that I like strong winds, I do love a good downpour of rain. Sure my basement floods a little bit, but nothing beats sleeping to the sound of rain beating down on the roof, windows and siding. When I got a new roof on my house last year, I considered a metal roof to get that rain-on-a-metal-roof sound. But at 5x the cost of a traditional shingle roof, I could not reasonably justify it.
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