Y'all Got Power? 23 Weeks

Winter Storm Pax pounded the southeast beginning Tuesday night in the form of sleet.  By Wednesday, ice set in, bringing Augusta to a screeching hault on Thursday.  Tens of thousands of people in the CSRA and 90% of Columbia County were without power. Text messaging was our main form of communication as Verizon and other providers were overwhelmed.  "Y'all got power?" Nope.

We couldn't safely get to work on Wednesday and only went in for half a day on Thursday.  We spent Wednesday feeding the fire in our living room fireplace and covered up in blankets.  Of course the pups didn't know any different and loved the extra attention.  Luckily, we had good friends feed us a warm meal and offer their home to us and our pups that Thursday afternoon. 

After 24 consecutive hours of no power and the temp reaching 51 degrees inside our house, we were grateful to have power restored on Thursday evening.  My parents stayed with us the next night as they were without power for over two days.
 

 

 Our driveway was like a skating rink. 

On our way into work Thursday, roads were treacherous, not because of ice or snow (that was mostly melting away), but because of trees, downed power lines and inoperable traffic signals. Waffle House and McDonald's, as well as two gas stations, were the only things open on Washington Rd near I-20, with lines wrapped around the parking lots and spilling into the roadway.  The Summerville area was one of the hardest hit due to the many old oak and magnolia trees, not to mention the tall pines!  Homes, fences, and garages received tons of damage.  Thankfully, none of our friends, family, or co-workers were injured.  We definitely felt blessed.

 

Georgia Power, Jefferson Electric, and various other power companies from out of state worked overtime to repair the damage. However, many people didn't have power for days!  Clean up is still ongoing.

 

As if that wasn't enough trauma for our community, on Friday night around 10:30pm, we experienced an earthquake!  It was a 4.4 magnitude with epicenter in Edgefield County (which is across the Savannah River in South Carolina....about 30 miles from our house).  Cary and I were in bed, happy to have heat and about to go to sleep when we felt a rumbling that shook the entire house.  After looking outside and realizing it wasn't a tornado, we assumed it was a helicopter or plane flying low.  The next morning, we realized that we had felt an earthquake (thank goodness for Facebook, keeping us all informed).  Again, no damage to our house and none reported in our neighborhood or nearby.

What a week!  Plus, the temperatures are supposed to reach the mid 70s this week.  Only in Georgia could you experience three seasons in a matter of a days.