Stormy weather

We arrived in Charleston – West VA, not the other one – Monday afternoon and checked into the house we’d rented for the week of family activities related to the upcoming wedding of our grandson. It’s a doozy! Built in 1976, we think…

We’d been without internet or cell service at our friends’ cabin the week before, so after settling in, we spent the evening catching up on emails, downloading photos, etc. After all, we’d promised to be back in touch Monday.

And laundry, we also did plenty of laundry.

Turned out to be a good thing we’d jumped right on it because Tuesday morning, a tornado touched down in Charleston. (More time spent in the basement with the washer and dryer.) We were safe, but in the dark, along with approximately 125,000 other Appalachian Power customers.

After the storm passed, we explored the damages to our temporary neighborhood on the mountain.

Only a small tree hit our rental – noisy but no damage

We topped off the gas tank and spent Tuesday night by candlelight, charging tablets and cell phones in the car when needed, so we could keep up with the forecast and power outage predictions.

Wednesday night, however, was supposed to drop into the 30’s. Discretion being the better part of valor, we found a hotel for the night. Took some research and a few calls to find one with both availability AND power. After all, plenty of locals were seeking shelter, and more than 2,000 line workers from ten states outside of WV also needed rooms.

Per Appalachian Power, damage assessment teams have so far discovered 1,279 spans of wire down, nearly 300 broken poles, 148 broken/damaged crossarms, and 65 transformers down. Most of the damage was due to trees.

As the estimate from the power company was pushed further and further out for restoring electricity to our little mountainside area (five days) – and with hotel rooms becoming more and more “Sold Out” – we quickly changed our hotel checkout all the way to Monday and returned to the rental house to collect our belongings (yes, back under the tree hanging on the wire).

We made the 47 trips to put everything back in the car,

In the end, no one in the family even saw the quirky house with the great view we’d rented so we could get together. But, hey, our hotel room has a nice view of the Kanawha River…