Rain Gryphon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rain_gryphon) wrote2012-07-09 07:38 pm
rain_gryphon) wrote2012-07-09 07:38 pm
The Blackout of 2012
The second day of the heat wave culminated in this memorably violent storm on Friday the 29th, which took down a lot of the above-ground power distribution system. After that, it was very hot and quiet the next few days. The storm was impressive - one of the strongest I've ever seen. I was out in my car because I wanted to see it, else a sign that fell on my parking space would have smashed my car, and perhaps me, had I come home at the regular time.
It was a great storm, if you like that kind of thing. Just before it hit, this huge gust of wind blew up clouds of dust that darkened the sky. That lasted only a few seconds before the rain came, but it looked like pictures from the 1930s. I could see people running in a panic, caught in the dust, before the rain came and blotted them from sight.
The rain was torrential. It was dark as night at 5 in the afternoon. The streets started flooding within two or three minutes. The wind was making my car bounce up and down. I left the street and got into a parking lot, and the water started coming there too, so I went to the higher part of the lot, and found a back way where I could leave for higher ground. By then it was almost over - it only lasted ten minutes or so. Trees were blown over, signs were blown ever, little bits of debris were everywhere.
On the way home, I saw a guy in a truck who'd had a power cable fall across the cab. The driver was unharmed, but afraid to get out until the electric company came. I think the line was dead, actually, but that had to be scary for him. We have big storms here, but this one was special. All around my neighborhood were these shreds of heavy red plastic cloth. I'm guessing someone's heavy tent got blown to bits. I found somebody's underwear in our parking lot, probably lost laundry that had been drying.
At the height of the storm, the news guy on the radio said "This just in! If you had a trampoline in your back yard, you don't now!", which broke me up.
I stood the first few days after the storm in my dark apartment. I had my battery fans rigged up, plus Saturday, Sunday and Monday ended with storms just at dusk, so it cooled off for the night. Tuesday we had brief rain during the day, and then it shot up over 100F, which turned the rain to steam. I'd had as much as I could take at that point - modern apartments aren't designed to passively circulate the air like older ones were. I skipped out and spent the rest of the blackout in a hotel that had power.
AEP had been estimating that they'd not have power restored here until Sunday night, but they actually got it back some time Wednesday. There were linemen's trucks here from as far away as Mississippi, helping repair the damage. By the time I found out, I was paid up through Friday at my hotel (I'd suspected AEP's estimate was conservative, but not that conservative) and just stayed the rest of my time there, returning to throw everything out of the refrigerator Wednesday night.
It was an adventure, and oddly fun. Power is apparently restored to all of Columbus proper as of last night, but the eastern reaches of the city (Newark and Cambridge) as well as Athens, Gallipolis and Point Pleasant (southeast Ohio) are still dark, and may be for several days yet.
All in all, a remarkable experience, and one I'm glad to have had, but one I'll hope not to repeat.
It was a great storm, if you like that kind of thing. Just before it hit, this huge gust of wind blew up clouds of dust that darkened the sky. That lasted only a few seconds before the rain came, but it looked like pictures from the 1930s. I could see people running in a panic, caught in the dust, before the rain came and blotted them from sight.
The rain was torrential. It was dark as night at 5 in the afternoon. The streets started flooding within two or three minutes. The wind was making my car bounce up and down. I left the street and got into a parking lot, and the water started coming there too, so I went to the higher part of the lot, and found a back way where I could leave for higher ground. By then it was almost over - it only lasted ten minutes or so. Trees were blown over, signs were blown ever, little bits of debris were everywhere.
On the way home, I saw a guy in a truck who'd had a power cable fall across the cab. The driver was unharmed, but afraid to get out until the electric company came. I think the line was dead, actually, but that had to be scary for him. We have big storms here, but this one was special. All around my neighborhood were these shreds of heavy red plastic cloth. I'm guessing someone's heavy tent got blown to bits. I found somebody's underwear in our parking lot, probably lost laundry that had been drying.
At the height of the storm, the news guy on the radio said "This just in! If you had a trampoline in your back yard, you don't now!", which broke me up.
I stood the first few days after the storm in my dark apartment. I had my battery fans rigged up, plus Saturday, Sunday and Monday ended with storms just at dusk, so it cooled off for the night. Tuesday we had brief rain during the day, and then it shot up over 100F, which turned the rain to steam. I'd had as much as I could take at that point - modern apartments aren't designed to passively circulate the air like older ones were. I skipped out and spent the rest of the blackout in a hotel that had power.
AEP had been estimating that they'd not have power restored here until Sunday night, but they actually got it back some time Wednesday. There were linemen's trucks here from as far away as Mississippi, helping repair the damage. By the time I found out, I was paid up through Friday at my hotel (I'd suspected AEP's estimate was conservative, but not that conservative) and just stayed the rest of my time there, returning to throw everything out of the refrigerator Wednesday night.
It was an adventure, and oddly fun. Power is apparently restored to all of Columbus proper as of last night, but the eastern reaches of the city (Newark and Cambridge) as well as Athens, Gallipolis and Point Pleasant (southeast Ohio) are still dark, and may be for several days yet.
All in all, a remarkable experience, and one I'm glad to have had, but one I'll hope not to repeat.