The Blackout

On December 15 sometime around 2 am the power went out in Jackson Park. In fact, due to a horrible wind storm that swept through the state, half of Washington was now out of power.

Almost everyone in our neighborhood was late getting to work. Around 9 am when the sun finally came up you could see husbands frantically trying to open their garage doors by hand and hurrying to work. Lucky for us Ray usually sets his cell phone alarm, so he was able to make it to work on time.

I found candles and matches and started preparing for a long day without power. When Ray came home from work we used the gas stove to keep the house heated.

Ray's sub left for Hawaii that weekend and I was left alone with no electricity. Growing up, my mother, brother and I survived two Chicago winters without any electricity, so I didn't feel the least bit scared about going a few days without power in Washington.

After about the second day of no power many families moved out of their homes and stayed at hotels or the homes of friends and family. Many people were doing this across the state. In a short time there was not a single hotel with room available. Even though many people had no choice but to leave their homes to find warmer places to stay the unfortunately this left many homes completely open to thief.

Returning from work one afternoon I was approached by one of the maintenance people. He informed me that several homes in the area had experienced flooding due to the pipes freezing and bursting. He asked me to keep at least one faucet running at all times until the power came back on. With very few people at home the maintenance team was working around the clock turning on water hoses in front of the houses that were empty. For those that were home they were coming in and changing the back-up batteries in all the smoke detectors.

The cats and I stayed warm in the bedroom watching Harry Potter on Ray's portable DVD player and drinking hot chocolate. Yes, I had places I could stay if things got too cold. But really, I wasn't bothered by it. Thanks to a gas powered water heater I could take all the hot bathes and showers that I wanted. I did eat out a lot in order to preserve the food in the fridge.

Our area was lucky. By the following Tuesday night power was back on. But many families in Washington would not have any power until after Christmas. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be home to see the power come on. But that's another story.