Thursday, late afternoon - torrential rains, strong winds, tornado sirens blaring everywhere.
Thursday, early evening - rains flood our yard, pours into basement from every corner.
Thursday, night - moping up water, creating dams to keep water at bay, thank goodness for shop vac working overtime. Melissa loses power, brings her groceries to our fridge.
Friday, 5:30am - Bill sounds alarm, power is out, sump pump overflowing. Bucket brigade bailing begins.
Friday, 6am - Christopher tries to buy generator...no luck. Brings back Burger King coffee and sandwiches. Wears a Burger King crown, which makes us all laugh.
Friday 8:30am - Melissa saves the day. Called hardware stores on her way to work and found a generator in another town. $426.00, costly, but we take it.
Friday, morning - Max and Christoper drive to pick up generator. Those remaining bail, bail, bail.
Friday, early afternoon - Generator arrives, sump is running, move food to downstairs fridge, now also working. Sound of our, and neighbors, generators running is deafening.
Friday - Find that generator requires refilling with gasoline every 90 minutes, off to gas station. House temp is nearing 80 degrees. Mosquitoes swarming outside.
Friday, all night - Generator shuts off every 90 minutes waiting to be fed. We are tired but must get up to feed the machine.
Saturday - Bill and Christopher search for larger generator that will run longer. Find one at Home Depot for $1,200. Left store without it.
Saturday, 5:30PM - Walk into kitchen to start dinner, and suddenly, lights turn on. Melissa's power returns soon after. It's over. Life is back to normal. Cleanup ahead, but so what? Some neighbors not so lucky, power still off.
Sunday, morning - Woke up to silence. Generators off. Power on. Neighborhood quiet.
This turned out to be a little inconvenience. We were tired. We were lucky.
I think of the tsunami and Katrina survivors. I can't imagine how this felt, and still feels, to them.
We were lucky. Nothing to complain about here.
