It’s Dark Baby–28hrs. Without Power

The wind started around 8pm. We were just coming from a community meeting. Within the next 2hrs. it increased in force reaching 100km/hr. (60mph) From there on it didn’t take long that our lights started flickering and we began looking for candles and kerosene lamps. Before the power went off we went to bed, flashlight on the nightstand. Moving forward in time: It’s 6:30am and the house is doused in darkness. No power. Good thing I know where matches, candles and kerosene light are. Next move is fetching the propane stove from the basement. I can’t start a morning without coffee! I have to make a fire in the wood stove. Everything is there. Some paper, an empty egg carton, kindling. OK, it starts burning. Luckily, the house is not cold. We have 4C (38F) outside. The storm, which has ceased by now, came from the south and brought warm air with tons of rain from the south-east of the States. Yesterday, the temperature rose from –20C to +10C within 30 hrs. A look outside confirms that a lot of snow has gone. Good! We don’t need to make snowmen. Our power outages on the island are like waiting for dinner to be served. You know it’s coming every time the clock strikes 6pm, or in this case, every time the storm is reaching 60mph. The power provider sent a line-clearing crew this past fall and they took away a lot of trees and brush underneath the power lines, but what office people don’t know is that the next row of trees don’t have the same strong root system and will keel over much easier than the row which was removed. It is beyond my understanding why power providers can’t learn of this and rather bury power lines than leaving them exposed to the elements, having to send out crews every time a strong wind causes damage. So after breakfast I decided to drive out to Liberty Point to watch yesterday’s surf crashing against the rocks. But I didn’t get very far. Mother Nature had closed the park road by felling a tree across it. So I had to back out again. And the rest of the day will be spent in waiting for the power to return, so I can publish this posting. Last update: The power was restored after 28hrs at 2:30am next day. It turned out that many trees had fallen across power lines. One treetop broke off and got hung up on the power line right over the main island road (Rte.774)