August 29, 2020 Reporting on Aug. 11
Hello,
I think I saved one file on another. Now
writing about that time. Also I see that I said Sarah was going to drive 4.5
miles it should have read, 4.5 hours to her brother’s house.
On August 10th the day of
the storm, we tried to contact Miriam and Sarah to tell them not to come
because of no power, little food and no stores open. Because of spotty phone
service we were unable to reach them. I even got up in the middle of the night
and tried, hoping that more space might be available as others might be
sleeping, but not luck.
In the morning, I started off for the
airport at the time I remembered. It was saved in my phone and the computer
which were quite inaccessible. I saw six fallen semis on the short ten mile
drive to the airport. At the airport, thinking I was early, I was quite
surprised to see them outside waiting for me. I miss remembered the time. They
had been waiting for 45 minutes. Sarah was considering what she should do since
she could not reach us.
In a panicked voice I said, “Who has a
phone signal? Who has power on their phone? You must call Miriam and tell her
not to come.”
They thought I was a bit to of the
side of sane. I had to convince them that it was not good here. Around the
airport it looked just fine and they said there had been no mention of
conditions from the flight crew. We caught Miriam’s family just as they were
ready to get on the plane. They had even seen their luggage get loaded. I
yelled across the car, “Stay home it is terrible here, no power and not so much
food!”
We did not know what they were going
to do, but we started home. “Someone has to charge their phone in the car. We
have no power and no expectation of getting any soon.” I commanded.
When I drove on the overpass I could
see the interstate was jammed with cars so, with great trepidation, I headed
off through town.
These DC people did not think it
looked bad at first, but soon we were seeing more trees down or with missing
limbs. I kept saying, “Just wait!”
They soon saw much more damage and
clogged streets. I was on a larger street so it was not too bad. We drove up to
a grocery store and there were cars in the lot. “We must stop and get some
food. Think about what you might want that will do for one meal with no
leftovers and no frozen things.”
We gathered a mental list, put on
masks, and went inside where there were a lot of people and many were not
wearing masks. One of the kids commented that they have to wear them to go in a
store. There was also little social distancing. There were many bare spots on
the shelves, but we found enough to manage. I had been planning to go shopping
with them because they eat so differently than we do.
On the drive deeper into the city,
they could see many smaller streets still clogged with tree and branches.
Course street lights were not working and stop signs were gone. Luckily most
people were proceeding in an orderly manner and with courtesy for others.
As we went on, Sarah and Lexi noticed
that their phone service was not as good as it had been. Welcome to a new way
of being.
Paula
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