Arriving at home on August 11

 Hello,

 

I am still writing about August 11, 2020. So many cars were on the streets trying to find alternate ways to their destination. One of the big problems was that with so much destruction it was hard to recognize where I was. The trees were not standing in their proper place, plus as fallen items they hid other things. I finally ended up going close to the museum which gave me good orientation. The hospital seemed like a good place to head to as those streets were surely open. Unfortunately many others must have had the same thought. I made little progress. At that point parking in the church parking lot and walking the mile home seemed liked the best idea. When I got to the church people were still there, even though they too were without power. My phone battery was done. Why oh why had I not charged it when I saw it was getting low. Why was the car charging cord in Leroy’s car? I asked one of them if they could contact Leroy to let him know where I was because I had taken more than an hour to make that much progress. One of them tried, but the call did not go through. I also decided I should use the restroom before I headed off because I did not know how long it would take me. One of them fetched a flashlight because it is totally dark in the restroom.

 

On my walk home I saw plenty of trees that had lost limbs, large and small. Some trees had come up with the root ball in the air. There were power lines or cable lines in many places. People I met would sometimes tell me of some hazard that was ahead. I first walked on a street that had a small number of trees and that meant quicker progress. Traffic was quite slow with no street lights or rather just two in operation.

 

I passed a gas station with the gas pumps flat on the ground. I wondered if that was a danger. But I neither smelled nor saw any gas. There were two guys out by them. They were young store workers, but I wondered if they really knew what they were doing.

 

Turning onto the medium sized street, revealed a tangled web of trees. Here too, people were out with chain saws. I followed a young woman as we navigated around these possible falling trees. It was hard to tell what was stable and what was not. Most of the houses that I looked at were intact. I was quite relieved to turn on my street and see the front of the house was still standing even if the two beautiful trees in front looked as if a giant had decided to tear them apart. On this hour and a half trip I saw fire trucks, police, and ambulance. Along with others, those people were working hard.

 

Paula