We had a wild storm last night! People who have lived in the area for forty years have not seen a storm like this – according to Elder and Sister Gibbons and the locals. We woke up about 11:00 because the lightning and thunder were so loud. Got up and looked out our big window in the living room. The only thing I can compare the lightning to is like when you stand in a room and switch the light off and on. That’s how much lighting there was. And the thunder BOOMED! It was so loud it shook the apartment. There is a huge tree outside our window and we hoped it wouldn’t fall down on us. The Gibbons lost about ten trees in their yard. They are staying in a couple’s home who are serving in the Utah area. This home has tons of trees and is in a very expensive neighborhood. Well, the neighborhood looks like a disaster area with all of the trees in the road. 266,000 are without power – including us. The worst hit was W. Virginia. 2 million are without power. Two have died. The winds were furious. I don’t think it was classified as a hurricane, but after this storm, I am hoping we never have one. They are brutal and scary.
Since we bought groceries last night, we are leaving our refrigerator and freezer shut so that the cold can stay in. It is going to be 102 degrees today. We are all hoping the electricity will be working soon so our air conditioner will work. We are getting in the car soon to go to the President’s home and see how he is doing. Also, at least our car has air conditioning. I am wondering what businesses have air conditioning, etc. We’ll see.
Oh my gosh, what a mistake to go anywhere after a storm. When we got out to our car we were so grateful that someone was watching over us. There were fallen limbs and leaves all around it, but nothing had fallen on it. It is our only mode of transportation. The first thing we did was fill up the car with gas. Thank goodness because everywhere we went there were lines down the road at the gas stations.
Two things we learned for the next storm – always have your gas tank half full (at home we knew that, why we didn’t do that here, is beyond me); also, if your electricity goes out, go to the store immediately and get dry ice because it goes fast. We went to four stores before we finally found one that had just got a bunch of ice in – no dry ice. So we got two big bags. We can’t really store more than that because we have just the little freezer over our refrigerator in the apartment. I am grateful we were able to find even two bags. We are so grateful for our car. It runs well and it keeps us cool and we can plug in our phones and computer and re-charge batteries. We feel very safe in it.
There is another storm moving in. The clouds are gathering.
I tried to show in these pictures what the roads look like and how the trees broke off not by the roots, but literally in the middle – just snapped off. Big branches landed on telephone wires and were draped across the road. Most of the traffic lights were out, therefore, not only was traffic very dangerous, but it takes forever to get anywhere. Elder Gibbons stood by a tree in his front yard to show the size of the tree and what happened. Wow! Welcome to our first big storm.
