Over 3 million without power

Friday night we had a little storm. There was some wind, a little rain, and a massive power outage. I'm still not completely sure that the storm was nearly as bad in our area as other people say it was. The thunder didn't even shake the windows.

Anyway, the lights flickered a few times then went out completely. It was about 11:15 pm. Thinking that the power would come back on by itself in a few hours, we went to bed.

Next morning, still no power. Nat got to sleep in, but I had to get up and get ready for work. Showering and trying to get ready by flashlight (no windows in our bathroom) is not a pleasant experience. Fortunately we had flashlights because I was able to rig a way to see. We also never lost water coverage, and our hot water heater is gas powered. That was a huge blessing. I was not looking forward to a cold shower in a very dark bathroom.

So I showered then put on make up by the windows, trying to be quite to not wake up Nat and also trying not to open the fridge. I did open it a few times to get out our water pitcher and pour some milk into my cereal, but I closed it fast. I was still expecting the power to come back on at any time.

On the way to work, there were a few branches on the road, but that was expected because the growth is very close to the road. By the time I got to the main street, I realized the street light was out. Not blinking, but completely dead. If you know my opinion of Maryland drivers, this was an incredibly bad thing. Most people were doing the correct thing by making the 3-4 lane road intersection a 4 way stop. Some people were very stupid and decided to run through the light at about 50 miles an hour. Fortunately, I made it in to work.

Everything was dead: no signs, no lights, no phones, no computers, and no alarm. My manager and her boss were both there (strange site to see a VP in jean shorts) because the alarm was beeping and running off a battery backup. Since we didn't have any power whatsoever, Wendy said that if we were not up and running by 10:00 am, we could all go home! To help our members, we put a sign on the door saying that we had no power, so we would not be opening. Then the workers started guessing when a persistent member would try one door handle, then the other, then look inside, then knock. I guessed 9:30, after we were supposed to open at 9. Other guesses included 9:20, 9:03, and 9:10.

At 9:27 a member pulled one handle, shook the locked door, cupped their hands to the glass to see inside, swiped their card to try to get to the (powerless) ATM, shook the door again, then went to sit in his car. I won the satisfaction of guessing correctly! The member sat in his car for about 15 minutes, hoping we would open. He never saw the huge sign that was taped to the window three inches from where he peered into the branch.

We got to go home at 10, which was great! My first Saturday off at home since I started working there. We spent the day trying to stay cool and not open doors. It was about 100˚ outside, and it actually didn't get crazy warm inside. I think we topped out at 79˚ yesterday evening. We called BGE (our electric provider) who told us that they would have the power on by 1:00. Nat had planned to go into Washington DC to have lunch with his aunt, uncle, and cousins already. It was great that I got to go too! It's nice having family so close, but it's also annoying that I work on one of the only days that they have off.

We all met at Hill Country BBQ close to the capitol building (we drove, that was scary). It was by far the best BBQ that I have had in this state. The waiter told us that all the brisket is slow smoked over wood that is shipped up from Lockhart, Texas. Everything there was based on a little family diner in Lockhart. It was absolutely a wonderful taste of home. The waiter, Charles, walked up to us as we sat down and recognized Nat. It turns out that Charles and Nat had a few classes together at ACU. None of us were from this area, but all the ACU alumni ended up in that restaurant and he happened to be our server. It's a small world when you are an ACU alumni.

After lunch, we made it back home and fell into an afternoon-long food coma. For some reason, we hadn't ever pulled out the candles that we have. I finally remembered to do that yesterday evening after our excursion to Chick-fil-a. It was an absolute mad house there. The drive-thru was wrapped around the building twice, and it was packed inside as well. Since so many people were without power, it was a good place to find AC and a meal. After we left the chaos, we came back home, lit the candles and played cards for a while.

At this point, I was resigned to the fact that we wouldn't be getting power any time soon so we just went to bed. It's really unpleasant to sleep when it's really hot. This is when I join the rest of Maryland and become a pansy. Fortunately, we woke up this morning to the sound of our fish filter running! Our power came back on at 8:33 Sunday morning which means we were out of power for about 33 hours.