As I write this, the weather forecast is warning of more snow (we already have tons!) and possible power outages. The power outage part really makes me nervous. A couple of years ago there was a major wind storm in Seattle. We live in the heart of a fairly urban area, close to downtown, and we were without power right before Christmas for seven days. Our house was a chilly 45 degrees, we were eating all of our meals out, in fact we were staying out all day everyday in order to be warm. My husband was out of town for business when it first happened and had a hard time getting home. Soon, after about three to four days, all of the houses around us had power. Ours was the only grid in the neighborhood without power for a full week. This is because of a huge fir tree that fell on the power lines a couple of blocks from our house. It took the power company FOREVER to get out and remove it. I know other areas were harder hit then us, these were mostly rural. It was depressing when our friends who lived 45 minutes to an hour out of town had their power back before us. It was also frustrating and depressing to see lights on in all of the houses around our area while we remained chilly and dark at Christmas.
I remember last year, when I got out the Christmas decorations, I had a bit of post traumatic stress disorder when I saw them. It took me right back to that hard time. People in this area have changed because of that storm. Generators are now sold out as are batteries and fire wood. This happens now every time we have a possible loss of power warning. People now assume that they will be out of power for days and days. I am included in this group and have drug out most of our camping equipment in case we have to "camp out" in our house for days on end. So here I sit in the Pacific Northwest, hoping for the best and wanting more than anything to get through the next two nights in light rather than dark cold.
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