A Storm Story

Erin's having some internet trouble so she can't post this, but she sent me an email asking me to do so for her. This is an email she got from a friend about their power troubles this weekend:

Friends in Whitehall...and their trials & tribulations after the storm. Wasn't funny at the time but when looked at this way, it's hilarious.
Lisa

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Okay, I'm finally together enough to tell last nights tale. Yes we now have power and yes everyone and everything is safe.


Sunday
power goes, a 1/4 of one of the oak trees hits our power lines and is tangled in them. Right over the wooden privacy fence and 15ish feet away from the local transformer (the one on the pole). and follow around the house is a huge portion of another oak tree leaning on branches of another tree inches away from that set of power lines.
Four hours later we get thru to AEP to report the hazardous conditon and say, don't turn the power on. They have it noted. Maintenance said they talked to aep and they were to be out on Mon.
We make sure the light above our bed is on to notify us of the power returning.

Mon
Paul stays home to watch things. No news, nothing. Since his cell was dying I called AEP to check things out and give them my phone # as well. and clarify it is not to get power turned on but to keep it off until the hazard is cleared. Emphasizing my concern over fire. their advice, if that does happen call the fire department ... well gee thanks, I couldn't have figured that out without you.
needless to say I didn't ask the nitwit what the fire department was supposed to do about the electrical lines vs water issue. I didn't want to have to explain.

Tues
We both are at work, and needless to say I'm not happy that the cats are home alone. After work I teach meditation and during the fabulous conversations after, my sugar crashes and anxiety sets in hard and I need to get home. Unusual feeling even for me. we get to the bob's in reynoldsburg, eat and fly home. Home long enough to check the tree, the cats, feed them, strip and crawl into bed.
Power flips on, we race to the back window. A min later I'm downstairs calling 911. somehow in 4 min flat We've talked to 911, shoved cats into carriers, dressed and shoved, cats and wallets into truck. Okay essential taken care of.
amazing response time by whitehall.
we now spend the next 45 minutes watching the tree burn, chatting with the fire department. we had to wait for it to burn off and drop. apparently the top line is the highest voltage and the really dangerous one. lower lines not so bad, so once its off there you should be fine a tree typically smolders out. okay great .. unless the power lines snap when the tree goes down.
then what
we call aep
anyone else feel like they are in a bad rendition of who's on first?
watching tree burn our firemen get a house call and off they go
leaving us and our two neighbors to watch the tree
it drops from the upper to lower voltage
lines stay put, although after seeing how wildly they swung, i"m amazed
babysit smoldering bits on ground, they go out
chatting with neighbors to wind down
power goes out
again check tree, its okay finally decide to try and sleep
flip light on over bed
20 minutes later
you guessed it, we have power
again out back watching tree
after about 20 minutes we feel safe enough to try to go to bed... thank god because I don't think we could have found the cats again to get them out of the house
spentt the next half an hour finding reasons to get up and check the house out
was around 2 by the time this was all done