Ice, Ice Baby

What a week!!! 1 inch of ice followed by three inches of snow = no power for 1 week! It has been nuts around our area! I wish I could have blogged through it all because God was sure watching out for us. The power went out about midnight on Monday. We thought maybe we could tough it out. So we pulled the girls into our bed and spent the day bundled up and playing cards and stuff. Then we heard reports of 2-5 days before electric was back. We knew we could not make it because it was already so cold. So, around 3 p.m. we headed out to find an alternate source of heat. Obviously every place was sold out of every thing. we were kinda panicking. Everyone we knew was out of power, roads were icy, hotels booked all the way to Nashville and we cannot find a way to keep our family warm. We were wandering aimlessly through Home Depot (enjoying their heat) when I heard employees mention the word "generator". I ran back and asked what they were talking about and they said that within the hour they were expecting generators. My husband sprinted up front where he got the LAST number of a promised generator. They KNEW 40 were coming, maybe more, but only 40 were definite. We were number 40. They came in within an hour and there were 50 of them so about 50 families purchased one. We lucked out and found a 2 gallon gas can and the last ceramic heater in the area! We got home and found our WHOLE neighborhood had left, except for the guy who shares our duplex. The 5 of us were alone in this area. It was a weird feeling. He had an extra gas can and he plugged into our generator. It took a good day for the house to reach about 50. It was such a blessing though because we could watch DVD's, use the coffee pot and even make toast and smores! We found a second heater and our living room got fairly cozy. We spent lots of time playing and going to playlands. Mostly, our time was spent surviving. Not in a life and death sense. But when you have an 8 gallon generator and only 6 gallons of containers, you spend LOTS of time going out to get gas, PLUS only 2 or 3 stations were open so you had at least a 3 car wait every time. PLUS they were cash only so you had to go to ATM's and of course only 1 or 2 of those had power! So, each trip for gas was about 1-2 hours worth of time and we were doing it 3 times a day! This whole area was hit so hard. At one point 3/4 of a million people were without power. It took almost 24 hours before ANY shelters were open. Then the water in the whole area became unsafe and we are all on boil alerts. Stores ran out of water, stores ran out of food. It is amazing there were not more deaths. We were so blessed and know how much God was taking care of us and others in the area. Now life can resume some sense of regularity. The base is open again too! I need to get some more laundry and stuff done, but hopefully I can add more to this later!