In Praise Of Power

Power. Beautiful, wonderful, gorgeous, lovely power. We have it. After seven days, we got it back, and I will never take it for granted again.

We cheered the utility trucks as they moved closer and closer to us, and applauded the morning they were directly in front of our home. I did a happy dance and there was a great deal of rejoicing when we got power, then a bit of booing when it went back off a few hours later.

Every time I see a lineman or a utility truck, I want to pull over and say "thank you, thank you, thank you." I know better than to distract them, but I am so glad for the job they are doing for us in our time of need.

Speaking of doing jobs for us; I can’t say enough about the local emergency and volunteer workers in my particular area. The night of the ice storm, a giant tree in my yard just kept losing large parts of itself. Another tree came down on my carport.

I don’t know who all of them were. Some of them were Gosnell police officers, some were volunteer firefighters, some were utility workers with spotlights, some were Westminster Village security. All of them ran up and down the streets in this area, repeatedly, with their big lights on checking for damage.

My gigantic tree fell close to the corner of my home, and looks like, from the road, that it is on my home. I noticed a spotlight shining through my backyard from the road. Several minutes later, there were men in my yard, checking to make sure we were okay, not trapped, and the tree was not in fact on my house.

An hour or so later, I got a call. Security was letting me know that lines and poles were down in my yard, tangled up with the tree, and I needed to careful if I went outside.

Since we didn’t have power, the only show to watch was the one outside the window, and it was something to see. They made a continuous circuit with their bright lights and flashlights and spotlights, stopping to check out anything that looked dangerous. They stayed on the roads all night, up and down and around, over and over and over again. They had to be cold and exhausted. They probably wished they were in their own homes.

Added to that, what they were doing was dangerous. Trees and power lines and poles were snapping constantly, falling into the very roads they were driving. I knew it was bad that night. With the light of day, it was worse. It made what those officials were out there doing all night even more heroic.

For the guys that spotlighted my house, thank you. For the guys that checked to make sure we weren’t trapped; thank you so much. We weren’t, but if we had been I would have appreciated knowing you were there to rescue me. For the guy who called me and told me to watch out for the lines in my yard, thank you. I take my dog out at night, and may not have noticed amid all the rubble.

For every officer, every fireman, every lineman and utility worker and volunteer and official that is working to get us through this, thank you. We were in a mess, and because of you all, we are getting through it. This particular citizen appreciates it, more than I can say.