Part 2: Snow is Dangerous

Wednesday, January 18, a storm was predicted. We were actually excited, hoping for another fun snow day! Well, the storm hit, and hit is a good descriptive word. No more playing in, hiking in, or even making snowballs. We stayed IN.....we couldn't get out, and you wouldn't want to be out anyway! No getting the cars out. By the time we woke up Thursday, we had received the most snow since 1985. (That's 27 years!). At 10:30 AM, our power went out. When our power goes out, we also lose our water because we have an electric pump to get the well water into our home. No electricity or water. We are prepared so it was a bit exciting! At night, we lit the candles, had the wood burning stove going, and we read books and played games. We were hardly even feeling it. The rest is excerpts from my journal:

Friday Jan. 20: We awoke to the sound of fireworks. We all ran out on the porch to see what was happening. Limbs, branches, even whole trees were breaking off before our eyes! My beautiful evergreens! The snow was too heavy, mixed with some wind and falling rain. It was unbelievable and kept up all day long. We couldn't do a thing about it but just pray that nothing would hit our roof or our cars. Our driveway was quickly shut off. Whole trees toppled over on it blocking it in many places. We are really trapped now! I am so worried there could be an emergency and we could not get to a hospital or anyone get to us. Trying to walk down our driveway is too dangerous with the branches and debris still falling. I'll be honest, I feel scared. And grungy/dirty. And cold. It is SO dark at night. Reid and I sat on the porch tonight, bundled up, listening to our woods crashing. It made me so sad.

Saturday Jan. 21: we have been without electricity and water for 50+ hours now. If I knew when it was coming back, I think I would be coping better. The air is very stale from all the candles and logs burning, and the kitchen and disposal and fridge all smell bad. We have been drinking ALOT of cocoa to stay warm. I have had everyone get dressed every morning and get in pj's at night just to keep some sense of a schedule. I start getting the candles ready and set up @ 3:00. Dad and Mike keep the fire going all day long. We keep snow melting all the time for flushing toilets. We have moved all the food outside into the snow. We go out to the car to charge our phones, but they don't seem to be holding their charge so we've had little contact with anyone. I hope they are not worrying about us. The kids seem a bit nervous, and Reid and I have both had headaches. But overall we are in ok spirits. I totally cleaned today just to stay busy and warm. A huge thank you to Harry Potter, who is keeping the kids occupied! We sleep good, but it's hard to get out of the warm bed in the morning. We are longing for some news! Any news! Who is ahead? Newt or Mitt? What is the weather going to be? Is more snow coming?

Later: Our neighbor came by. He let us use his car! We got bundled and braved the driveway. It was SCARY! Limbs and snow were falling around us while we climbed over and under branches and slid on ice and sunk in snow all down our driveway just to get out to his car. But the whole town is closed! There is no electricity! All fast food, gas stations, banks, offices, everything is closed! Fred Meyer is open on a limited use. You have to use cash. How silly we were to think we could get away from our home and go get supplies or a burger! Ace Hardware has no power but they are letting people in one at a time. Again you need cash because no electricity for credit purchases. Water is almost sold out. We are feeling eery and quiet. We came home to our dark, cold home, and everyone was just quiet for awhile.

Later: I am writing by candlelight. We decided to go back out and check on people. We braved the driveway once more. Gosh, it is scary and we probably shouldn't have done it, but I married a dedicated priesthood holder and he felt he needed to check on his home teaching families, 4 of which are single women. (one of them had their husband pass away just a few weeks earlier). I didn't want to be home alone so we all went. We found no one at home. They have all moved into motels in a nearby city. But there are downed power lines, roads blocked by fallen trees, and just unbelievable sites. Is this our town that was so normal a week ago??? We are told the governor has issued a state of emergency.

Sunday, Jan. 22: it should have been Stake Conference today but our entire stake is out of power. It's now been 72 hours. I woke up last night and it was pitch black. But I thought I heard someone in the house. I got up with a flashlight and walked around. Everything was peaceful. When i went back to bed I realized that no one could get to our house anyway! Reid is worrying about the office. The power is out there, too, so the answering machine isn't even on. What business are we losing? The pets are all acting weird, like they have nervous energy. None of them are eating or drinking. Our freezer is leaking water on the kitchen floor. We are having church in a few minutes. We each prepared a talk. We played chess and checkers. No one is eating much food. It is weird. Everyone is quiet today and getting tired of this adventure. Two men from the ward came and checked on us at two different times. That made me feel so good! Mike and Reid have been out helping neighbors and strangers. Everyone is so helpful! The car battery is dead from us charging our phones. The Cooper is stuck in snow. It has started being very windy and we are worried the wind will delay the power coming back. We are worrying about the financial toll. Our business, our fencing is down, the clean up we have ahead of us, the food we are losing. But hey, we're saving money on electricity!

That night: We got our power on after 77 hours. Instead of enjoying it, we went straight out and worked on clearing our street. It was a disaster. Mike and dad raked and Claire and I swept. Now cars can drive safely. That took about an hour. We came back in and the house was warm! It has never felt so good to be warm! I turned on just about every light in the house! I washed my hands in warm water coming out of the tap! It felt wonderful! I just let it run on my hands. We all took showers and Reid made us a hearty, hot meal! We were all showered, fed, and in our pj's and wanting to just go to bed by 7:30! All our thoughts were turning back to our responsibilities of work and school and the pressure of picking up where we left off 10 days earlier. My thoughts tonight are: 1. I am a wimp! I think of all the generations who have lived without heat and running water and I feel silly. 2. I am so thankful we were prepared! 3. I believe in miracles. Our home and 2 cars were not hit by anything! They were surrounded by falling debris (we have a large tree on our front lawn) but nothing happened! We witnessed a miracle!

Is it over? Part 3 is next.