Ice Storm PAX, Earthquake, & Other Disastors

“It’s an official disaster,” I told my wife, “They just announced on the news.  Obama declared it. Now we’re eligible for Federal Aid.”  I’d seen where Obama had signed legislation promising Federal Aid, should the South need it.  And they would.

Monday I suspected I would have my hands full Wednesday.  I knew my granddaughter would be here. Her daycare closes at the first threat of snow and the forecasters were calling for the storm of decades – up to an inch and a half of ice.

Flower Buds In Ice

I live smack dab in what the news guys would call ‘the hardest hit region’, and things start collapsing quite quickly. Things like power lines and trees.

This is what a little bit of my yard looked like during the storm.

It just got worse from there.

My stepson (the one with the granddaughter) decided he needed to hunker down here.  His power went out early, and my wife made a pot of chili to keep hot as long as ours was on. When it died, it was time to chow down.

I have a fireplace We had lived like pioneers one winter when the heat pump went down – I had hauled coals into the bedrooms to keep us warm at night. Old fashioned survival skills  still come in handy.  After a year my wife was done with it. A new heat pump (the one in the picture) was purchased. The fireplace was frowned on whenever I mentioned it.  I was forbidden to even get wood for it.

That’s been solved. I now have a nice pile of firewood twenty foot long and four foot tall . . . all green, of course!

We had all kinds of visitors. My parents showed up on Night 2 – the night of the earthquake.

It was a 4.1 centered near Edgefield SC, about 30 miles away.   I was in bed resting when I heard a rumble like thunder . . . only it kept on going and getting louder.  Then I feel the bed shaking up and down like jello.  It felt good – like the “Magic Fingers” beds in hotels.  I just laid there enjoying it.  Then I realized my wife & kids might be concerned.  I could hear their voices.  I wasn’t.  The house hadn’t fallen (yet), and this region is prone to minor quakes. Just interesting, too, a fact to be observed.  After it stopped I got up.

Sure enough, they were scurrying around. My wife & son had gone to stare into the icy darkness outside. Then my daughter called on the phone.  I was surprised – she’s 75 miles away – but within fifteen minutes news was saying it was felt from North Carolina to Florida (we had the power & internet again). Go figure. Right in the center . . .

Well, why not?  If you’re gonna have one disaster, you might as well have a two or three just to keep you on your toes.  Take a lesson from Japan.  And it’s not like I don’t have anything to worry about.  I live in a region with two nuclear plants (SRS & Vogle) plus a hydroelectric dam.

So I got the wife, myself, stepson and his three young’uns, my two parents, and my daughter and her fiance’  . . . ten people in all, house surrounded by fallen limbs and brush, power and telephone (this including the cellphone service) spotty, everyone under one roof, a Federal Disaster declared . . .

“Why not?” I asked my wife, smiling. “That’s us! Who else would invite everyone over to have a party in the middle of a disaster like this!”

Yeah, that’s us.