You Survive A Power Outage Your Way, I'll Do It Mine

In December of 2007, we had an ice storm. Not ice. Not sleet. An ice STORM. As in an inch to an inch and a half of ice encasing trees, power lines, cars, playground equipment, roofs, grass, signs, gutters, and pretty much anything else but the streets. Weirdly enough, the streets themselves were relatively clear of ice covering. 

It was a Sunday morning, only a week before the children's Christmas program at our church. My daughter, almost 9, and I left the house to go to church, because we couldn't miss play rehearsal! As the streets were not ice covered, I thought it wouldn't be that bad. My daughter, however, was sure we were going to die, and I assured her it would be fine once we got out of our neighborhood. We crunched and slipped and slid across the grass to the driveway, and just as we got to the car, we heard a crack, crack, cracking sound.

"Listen," I said to Emma. "The ice is already melting and falling off the trees."

The next thing we knew, there was a tremendous CRASH, and a 25 foot tall tree across the street crashed to the ground. Had it fallen a few feet in a different direction, it would have landed onto the street and dangerously close to where we were standing. Emma immediately began howling, and we crunched back to the house and went inside to safety.

Within an hour, our power went out.

This was not good.

Our house is old (built in 1926) and drafty. It has 3800 square feet of hardwood floors with no carpeting. There is a gas furnace for each floor, but the blower needs electricity to work, so no heat. There are two fireplaces that were not usable (we were kicking ourselves that we had never done anything about that, but the remedy was very expensive). The house started to get chilly very quickly.

My husband called my in-laws, who lived on the other side of town, and when we found out that they had power, we headed there. Sadly, we had to leave our kitties at home, because my in-laws are not cat people (and one of them may or may not actually be allergic and I'll leave it at that). We drove the few miles to their house, creeping down the streets, avoiding fallen limbs. Their house was warm and had LIGHTS, and we settled in for a cozy stay. 

An hour later, THEIR power went out.

Their home was in a heavily wooded area. I went into an upstairs bedroom to look out at what the storm had done. It was a winter wonderland, if you could discount the fact that power lines were down all over town. As I looked out the window in the quiet of a house with no electricity humming through it, I could hear the cracking of ice, followed by the crash of tree after tree falling from the weight of the ice on its limbs.

My father in law built a fire in their fireplace. We cooked on the gas grill on the back porch. It was all campy and kind of fun. Fun-ish.

By the next afternoon, I was done, especially after I drove back to our house to check on the kitties. The house was very cold (we left water running in our bathroom sinks to prevent freezing). Per my dad, I poured antifreeze into the toilets. A thermometer in my bathroom showed it was 39 degrees in there. The kitties were curled up together on a bed of blankets in the basement. I went back to my in-laws home and told my husband I was out of there the next day and was taking the kids and cats with me.

My parents, who lived an hour's drive to the north of us, missed the ice storm. I loaded clothes, cats, and kids into the car and headed out. About twenty miles north of town, a chunk of ice fell off some power lines that crossed the highway and crashed onto the windshield and hood of our car. My son and I, sitting in the front seat, thought we were goners, but the windshield remained intact, and contrary to how it sounded and felt, there was no anvil-sized dent in the hood of the car from the impact of the ice, either. By the time we were thirty or so miles to the north, we ran out of ice almost completely. 

The kids, cats and I spent the rest of the week at my parents' house, warm and cozy. School was canceled for the entire week, as more than half the schools in the district had no power. While the power was restored at my in-laws' home late on the day we left (a perk of living near the two hospitals), our home was without power for 7 days.

Rumor has it that this winter could be very cold and wet. Should you experience a winter storm-induced power outage like we did, here are my recommendations for how to survive it:

1. Pack your bags, gather up your kids and pets and leave.
2. Before you walk out the door, turn on the water in a couple of sinks to prevent the pipes from freezing and pour some antifreeze into the toilet bowls. Better safe than sorry.
3. Go somewhere that has power, preferably a family member's home, where they have a familial obligation to take you in and keep you.
4. If the power goes off there, repeat #2.
5. Ignore your husband when he calls you an electricity whore.
6. Also ignore that everything in your refrigerator and deep freeze are defrosting, because there's not a thing you can do about it.
7. Stay in your warm, happy place until the power is restored at your own home.

May the warmth be with you.

This post was an entry for Mama Kat's Writing Workshop with the prompt:

List 7 ways to survive a power outage.