Cathy and I are two of the 1.5 million people who have lost power on the East Coast. We are now into day four, sans power. The wind that caused all of this was pretty amazing. It was a Nor’easter and pummeled the east coast. We are lucky here in Virginia that we didn’t have the snow or rain that often accompanies a storm like this.

Wind warnings about the potential for this storm started arriving several days ago, but of course you never know what’s really going to happen. Then it began sometime after midnight Thursday night. Laying in bed, I woke as the wind started growing and growling outside. Small surges at first, but they kept getting bigger and louder. Around three or four, the wind sounded something like a train going by, and the house groaned a bit. Something exploded down the road. A tree falling? A transformer exploding? Not sure, but it didn’t sound good. Sometime after four, the power went out, and then a few seconds later the generator kicked in and started running. Whew….

I had to go to Tysons Corner early that morning, and left home while it was still dark. As I drove our country roads to get to the interstate, there was debris everywhere and trees were down, but luckily, nothing blocking the road. On the interstate, anytime you were on a bridge or in an elevated area, the car was rocked by the winds. Definitely a good day to drive with both hands on the wheel. 

That afternoon, the winds hadn’t really abated. The news said there were gusts up to 70 miles an hour in our area. Driving home over the same country roads, you could now see that several trees had fallen across the road after I had driven through that morning. I counted five between the interstate and our house, and they were now cut up and out of the way. I found out from Cathy that the road to Warrenton was blocked most of the day, due to multiple fallen trees blocking the way. The winds would continue to blow at elevated levels for eighteen hours. Still no power, but the generator keeps running.

On Saturday, Cathy and I walk the fence line. Carmen helps us find one busted up fence section, but that was the only problem. The wind was still blowing, but nothing like Friday. Talking with neighbors, everyone seems to think we will have three or more days without power (**Whoops, past three now**).  There are trees down everywhere, which means there are lots of small problems everywhere. We live in a bit of an isolated area, and the power company fixes those problems that effect the most people first. We know there’s a power line down about 3/4 of a mile away. It is on a path through the woods, and services only our small area. Hmmmm…

The generator keeps running. Power out, and one broken fence section. We are pretty lucky in the big scheme of things. Locally, many of the people we know are without power. Some have generators, some don’t. And, as one friend reminded me on Facebook, after hurricane Maria she was without power for almost three months at their home on Saint Thomas. Another friend has several folk who work for him in Puerto Rico that are STILL without power.  

On the east coast, flights were cancelled, trains were cancelled, schools closed, and the government shutdown. 40 inches of snow fell in New York, it flooded in places from Boston to New Jersey and there were five deaths attributed to this storm.

It’s good to remember our blessings. And to check the gas level in our propane tank that powers the generator.

The generator keeps running….