I had a bad feeling about the storm on Monday night (jan. 26th). So, we went picked up a kerosene heater from Dad, which had enough gas in it for about a day. Sure enough, our electricity went out on Tuesday morning. It didn't take us long to get the heater up and going. We actually stayed pretty warm on that first day. We knew that our gas wouln't last long, so off we went in search of more fuel. By chance, we heard that a gas station in Charleston had kerosene. The roads were not too bad, so off we went. Mom and Dad were not as lucky as us. They couldn't find kerosene anywhere! So, we stocked them up too. We knew that we now had enough gas to last us for at most 2 more days. Our house was much colder when we returned home. We cooked a warm meal of soup and grilled cheese on the grill. We ate our meal by candlelight and played mexican train dominoes until bedtime. We thought we were pretty warm and so we tried to conserve some of our heat so we turned off the heater for the night. I know, stupid huh?
We were pretty cold the next morning. It took ALL day to warm the house back up to 65 degrees. Mom and Dad lost power at about the same time that we did on Tuesday. Jim and Lorraine lost power on Tuesday as well. Unlike mom and dad, they did not have a heater. So, on Wednesday, we ventured over to the Malden/Campbell area to pick them up. They were literally stranded! Their driveway was completely blocked by downed trees. There were so many power lines down. Most pole were even snaped in two. The big transmission poles were even down!
Needless to say, we all knew it might be a while before any of us got our power back on. However, Jim and I consider ourselves very lucky. We were only in the dark for a little over 48 hours. Mom and Dad went without power for 7 days. As soon as we had electric, we ran our own little warming center for our families. Jim and Lorraine are still without power. They have been staying with us for 11 days now.
Just this morning, our cable was reconnected! You really don't realize how much you appreciate live technology until it's gone. I do have to say that New Madrid is getting back to normal. Our town all most looks normal, despite the mangled trees. Unfortunatley, some people are still without power in New Madrid County. School will be resuming classes on Monday, after a 13 day break. It'll be just like coming back from Christmas break all over again. At this point, it looks like we won't have a break again until May! But, we're crossing our fingers for a little relief in a spring break.
