Power is a Good Thing

As I pulled up my blog to start this post, I noticed the date on the last post & realized that title, although mostly about vacation, was also about a storm. This post, while not as much fun or nearly profound, is also about a storm.

We experienced quite a storm on Thursday June 13. I can honestly say that I never & I do mean NEVER have encountered anything quite like this. I have made it through many kinds of weather in my (uh hum) few, short years on this earth.

I don't remember much about Hurricane Hugo back in the late 80's except we were without power for a whole week & it knocked over my apple tree. REALLY? We had 2 & it knocked mine over! I was only 11 at the time.

I completely remember the Blizzard of '93. I didn't realize it was considered a "storm of the century" until I just googled it! I was a freshman in high school & broke my ankle sliding into 2nd base just a few days before the storm hit. I was getting ready to turn 15. My ankle was in a cast & I REFUSED to allow anyone to cut my blue jeans & I was too cool to wear jogging pants to school. So, guess what I did? I wore shorts! Yep, many, MANY inches of wet, fluffy snow. My daddy thought it would be fun to throw me off the porch in my shorts & cast into that snow. That's one of the few times I have ever had snow on my birthday (late March).

The summer of 2004 saw a very active season for Hurricanes. It seemed like storm after storm continued to batter us. NC, along with many others experienced flooding like we haven't seen in years. The Elkin park was completely under water for days.

We have seen record highs, record lows, rain, sleet, hail, snow, wind, thunder, & lightening, but Thursday honestly caught me by surprise. We were without power for almost 24 hours. Many others suffered much longer than we did. This is taken from my Facebook status shortly after the power finally came back on....

"Its comforting looking out at the beautiful blue sky & feeling the light breeze today. Yesterday was a different story. I know many people suffered from the storms. I was getting ready to walk & the door headed to town when it started pouring rain. I looked out the back door & I have NEVER seen that much debris flying through the air (except on TV). The sky was filled with limbs, leaves & stuff. We watched several trees snap just over the hill & it looked like the others (very tall skinny trees) were almost touching the ground. These are the same trees that blocked Austin Traphill Rd & our firemen spent all night & part of the morning cutting out of the road. As we went to the front door for a different view, pieces of tin from our building sailed by. The door was almost impossible to open due to the wind. My father in law saw "something" & heard it - call it a small twister, whirling dervish, whatever - spinning over our house. It all happened too fast for me to have processed the fear that probably should have come. I was just in awe as the power. After driving around surveying the path & the damage, I am thankful for those trees down on Austin Traphill Rd. I believe they put up enough block to save my house. My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones & suffered more damage than we did. Trees can be replaced, lives cannot."