Winter Storm Riley did a number on our area, that much is certain. The Squire said the power went out around noon on Friday, and it came back on Saturday at 1:30. We really made out much better here than a lot of other folks, but I certainly have even more sympathy for the people in Puerto Rico. I worked on Friday and had hoped to run out and do a bit of shopping on my lunch hour. First, it snowed like mad, and with the wind whipping around at 50 mph, I’d have been driving inside a milk bottle. Then a customer reported all the traffic lights were out for at least a five mile stretch along the only road that went directly to my destination. So, scratch that. We’ll try again on Monday.
There were a lot of trees down between the office and the Rice Paddy. The road was blocked by a State Highway truck at one point, and an electric company truck at another. I could see a pole down a short distance beyond that truck. There were also wires down closer to home, where a tree hand gone down and snapped the line. A neighbor lost two huge pine trees; one had blown over and taken its neighbor with it. One house had half the siding off north side. A woman about a mile from here was killed when a tree fell on her as she was going out to the mailbox. The Squire said he himself nearly got hit, when a branch fell directly behind him. Ten seconds one way or the other would have been fatal. The wind was so loud you couldn’t hear anything else, so you couldn’t even get out of the way.
Fortunately, we have an older gas stove, so we were able to light it with matches; the newer ones have a “safety feature” that makes it impossible to do that. I don’t mind sitting in the dark, or being cold, but I draw the line at going hungry. The Squire had home-made soup ready when I got in and had brought the kerosene lamp from the bedroom to add to the one already in the dining room. Of course, the second lamp made the smoke detector go off. Fortunately, that one is not connected to the police – although I don’t think it would have made much difference without any power.
We had purchased a dozen small flashlights for the nieces and nephews at Christmas, but we didn’t get to see half the children so there were still a bunch of torches
lining the mantle. I put a magnetic hook on the stove hood and hung one there, so we could see to fix breakfast, and another on the medicine cabinet doorknob, so we could brush our teeth. The Squire brought a bucket of water from the pond to flush the toilet. All the comforts of home.
We didn’t get cable service until Sunday afternoon, which meant we didn’t have a phone or computer, but we were able to use the cell phone, and had power to recharge it. My inbox had almost 100 messages in it! About five were worth answering. ‘Twas ever thus.
thisendoftheswamp 
Oh wow! I’m glad you made it through as well as you did!