The Return of Power!

Now that the storm is over and almost everybody has power back, unless there was major damage to their homes, we are getting back to our normal routines. It was such a relief to get the power back. In any season there would be the problem of light and refrigeration, entertainment, and telephone, and water for those on pumps out in the country. In the winter there is the additional stress of lack of heat. This outage happened to correspond with a very cold change in the weather. After this, many more homes will have wood as an alternate source of heat and many will install gas appliances. A large number of people bought generators as an alternate source of power during this outage. Future ice storms in the next few years will be easier on some people, although it is never really easy. We like our power.

Through it all, one of the things I noticed about people is how worn out they were looking in general. The ice storm was a break in the normal routine. Some things were harder to do. Problems either seemed to disappear (as in minor worries) or they got larger (as in major health issues). Even though I was getting a good night's sleep in a warm house and eating very well at my husband's parent's house, it was a different routine. I felt weary. The cold, the ice, the damage, the uncertainty as to when it would all be back to normal all had an influence. That was pretty much the way most people felt if they were without power very long. I'm sure there was mild anxiety and depression among many as well. People would call radio stations, crying. Some people had more depression than others. Some even went as far as to have some form of Post Traumatic Stress disorder, particularly if more happened to them than just the power going off.

Along with the stress, a lot of people did a lot of good things to help others and many people shared what they had with others. That was a very good thing.

Now that it is over, people are much more thankful for power.