September 14, 2005

Power Outages

Last night we had a wicked storm with almost hurricane-force winds. It seemed to come out of no where as the sky was instantly black, the rain was fierce and and out of our livingroom window we watched huge tree branches bend and snap. We-energies says it's the second worse in history in terms of power outages. My friends dad was driving near Holy Hill and felt his rear tires come off the road then witnessed the trailor of a semi come up and over the other lane. It came on fast and forceful but didn't seem to last that long.

My alarm clock woke me up at 6:50am so obviously we're not affected. Thank God. When I clicked on the local news I saw school closing notices. I had no idea why since we didn't have a freak snowstorm at night or anything. I didn't think the storm the night before really was that bad. I got online to check and make sure my kids really didn't have school.

Yep, it was that bad. House fires, trees falling on roofs, people injured on the highways and lots of damage. Our village was one of the hardest hits from fallen tress and downed power lines.

Yet, we still have power. I'm SO THANKFUL. With four kids, two fridges and a freezer there's no way I could deal with that gracefully.

A man died, leaving 100,000 without power and I'm sure there must be other downed lines and questions about safety. Snoo and Jake do not have school but Mooch does. However, a lot of Milwaukee area schools are closed too so I'm interested to find out why there's such a broad spectrum. Another highschool is closed due to plumbing problems.

Last night the kids just thought it was cool and fun to watch. Now I realize we have no plan in action for things like this. I think it's time to get my emergency kit updated and look into getting a generator like my neighbor did for times like this when we're not the lucky ones.

What's with the weird weather anyways?