I think Hurricane Katrina took most everyone in these parts by surprise, in that rarely does this area sustain much damage. 1 or 2 trees; that’s about it. Lots more trees lost this time. Not much structural damage.
I was out and about most of the day and part of tonight. Not by choice. I would say that in a 30-40 mile radius everybody lost power – except us – and even my community didn’t suffer much more than a few lost tree branches. Last summer thru all of the hurricanes we went thru – bigger storms, power didn’t go out the way it did this time in this area. I was able to walk into a store and grab a bag of ice, some water. Today ice was gone as soon as the stores opened. There is also no gas.
I hit quite a few stores today. Most notably; any that had power also had water and necessities – even food, no ice. Couple of good deals as well. Most everyone who was nuts enough to be out and about – the stores were freakin packed! One Target we wandered into didn’t have any power: except for a generator – handed everyone a flashlight as they walked in, LOL.
Drivers were courteous, obeying the 4 stop rule at traffic lights that were out, except for one. I almost got broadsided by a huge (new) pickup who didn’t bother looking, stopping or slowing down. He just barreled thru. Luckily I was alert and paying attention.
The real fun came tonight, when on the phone with Mom, complained that she didn’t have anything to eat. Well, she does but being that she has no power she is rather miserable and a tad whiny. I offered to go back out and go to the store. I had also procured a couple of bags of ice. Took her the ice, she made a tiny list and said she wanted a Whopper.
Fine. I’ll get you a Whopper after I go to the grocery store – the only one open.
Got the groceries and proceeded on my Journey of the Whopper. And a Journey it was. I leave the relative safety of the grocery store parking lot and travel into …….darkness. No lights anywhere except for the other cars on the road. None. Nada. Pitch black.
It was scary. Surreal even. To see all stores closed and dark at 8pm is really strange. Driving around in the darkness, other drivers didn’t seem to be affected by the darkness and sped right past me. Never did find the Whopper, much to my mothers extreme unhappiness.