calliopes_pen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
calliopes_pen) wrote2010-06-22 10:19 am
calliopes_pen) wrote2010-06-22 10:19 am
Extreme Heat, Combined With A Power Outage
Yesterday evening, around 7:15 PM, the power went out. Apparently, a transformer (actually the entire substation as we found out later) blew up. Danny was outside with Nellie, and heard it from somewhere in the direction of the hospital. Since the temperature was 100 degrees, with a heat index of 110 this was not a good thing. I’m hot natured, and was already headed to turn on the fan when that happened. We had a very tiny fan that was battery powered and died a noble death trying to cool everyone off.
Cue me sitting outside in the van from around 7:30 PM until 9:10 PM, as that was the only source of cool air. Toby was confused about why everyone was outside and wandering around, so every so often he barked.
Around 9:10 PM, we heard that the power was back over at the other house, and started packing things up to head over there. At that point, someone from the power company very slowly drove down the street, to take a head count (so many people called, it made the grid shut down in their area) of houses without lights on, so we decided to stick around.
Power came back around 9:30, and we had to wait a few minutes before the air conditioning started working and lowered the temperature inside down to a normal level. That took until 9:45 PM. Took until around 10 PM to unpack everything everyone had rounded up. Took until around 11:30 PM, for the bedrooms to get okay enough to stay in. Didn't get to sleep until a little after midnight or so. Woke up at 5:20 AM to birds shrieking.
This morning, the news claims that it started at 7:30, and was fixed by 8 PM. We got it slightly earlier, and it wasn’t fixed until later for our street. Mom tried calling the power company, but apparently all circuits were busy/melting because of all the phone calls. Because every single person in the Paducah, Reidland—and another small area that I currently can’t recall—was calling.
WKYQ was still on the air and telling the areas that didn’t have power (answer: everyone)--but that’s only because they got a huge back-up generator after the ice storm.
As Mom said at one point--why can't the power outages ever be when it's nice outside? It's either ice storms or extreme heat that triggers it.
Cue me sitting outside in the van from around 7:30 PM until 9:10 PM, as that was the only source of cool air. Toby was confused about why everyone was outside and wandering around, so every so often he barked.
Around 9:10 PM, we heard that the power was back over at the other house, and started packing things up to head over there. At that point, someone from the power company very slowly drove down the street, to take a head count (so many people called, it made the grid shut down in their area) of houses without lights on, so we decided to stick around.
Power came back around 9:30, and we had to wait a few minutes before the air conditioning started working and lowered the temperature inside down to a normal level. That took until 9:45 PM. Took until around 10 PM to unpack everything everyone had rounded up. Took until around 11:30 PM, for the bedrooms to get okay enough to stay in. Didn't get to sleep until a little after midnight or so. Woke up at 5:20 AM to birds shrieking.
This morning, the news claims that it started at 7:30, and was fixed by 8 PM. We got it slightly earlier, and it wasn’t fixed until later for our street. Mom tried calling the power company, but apparently all circuits were busy/melting because of all the phone calls. Because every single person in the Paducah, Reidland—and another small area that I currently can’t recall—was calling.
WKYQ was still on the air and telling the areas that didn’t have power (answer: everyone)--but that’s only because they got a huge back-up generator after the ice storm.
As Mom said at one point--why can't the power outages ever be when it's nice outside? It's either ice storms or extreme heat that triggers it.
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