Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Dodging a bullet from Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy roared over the East Coast Monday and Tuesday and mostly spared Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia.
The storm was a cake walk for us compared to the summer derecho storm, which left us without power for four days. Power to our home in Vienna, Va., was out for 15 hours this time around.
The storm appears to have had a devastating impact on New Jersey and New York, in particular. But my family dodged a bullet this go-round.
We were watching “The Voice” on NBC and celebrity coach Adam Levine was just about to pick a winner from one of his Knockout pairings when the electricity went out. It was out from 9:05 p.m. Monday to about 12:05 p.m. Tuesday.
My wife had planned ahead for the blackout. She purchased head lamps for the kids and one for me that clipped to the bill of my baseball cap. She also bought glow sticks and little flashlights for the kids.
The temperature dropped to 64 degrees inside our house overnight. But we put on sweaters and sweatshirts and soldiered on.
The worst part of the whole ordeal was the kids fighting. They were off from school Monday and Tuesday and were getting cabin fever from being stuck inside while the rain and wind raged.
But the power’s back and they’re returning to school tomorrow. Praise the Lord.

Photo: Screenshot from my smartphone showing power outages in Northern Virginia as of 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to Dominion Virginia Power. We were among the unlucky 12% of Dominion’s customers in the region that lost power.

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