The 6:00 p.m. news yesterday afternoon mentioned that there was a "possibility" of evening showers but there was a good chance that they would not materialize. Around 8:35 p.m. the winds started blowing but not bad probably about 25 mph followed shortly by thunder and lightning.
Decided to write my blog entry early when all of a sudden the lights went out at 9:10 p.m. I could not understand why as the thunderstorm was not that severe yet. Then the winds started whipping up, the rain began beating on the windows and all hell broke loose.
Today, I would learn that the wind speeds got to 60 mph while at Laughlin Air Force Base they reached 70 mph at the height of the storm.
Thank goodness I had charged my solar lights so at least we had some sort of illumination. The only thing I miss about having a real landline is that they actually ring during power outages. While "technically" we still have one...it does not work without electricity since it is bundled with Internet, cable and telephone service with Spectrum.
I would later find out that the City of Del Rio Emergency Management System did a robocall to all the residents at 9:39 p.m. My question is WHY until then? By now the storm was over!
At 9:46 p.m. the outside street lamp...that WE pay for as there were no street lights when we first moved here...came on as well as the lights to all the neighbors across the street. I could not see the lights on our side of the street as my family owns several lots and with all the rain we have experienced recently along with the growth it was impossible to see beyond my lot (adjacent to my parent's property).
I signed up mother for paperless billing a couple of years back to cut down on the paper clutter so had no actual bill to look up a number to report the outage to. Decided to Google it only to find out that my cellphone battery was very low. The number they gave me would disconnect me as soon as I inputted my area code. Wished CPL had referred me to their parent company AEP who is the one that actually handles these matters.
To make an already long story short...and after multiple calls...the lights came back on exactly at twelve noon today. It took 14 hours and 50 minutes for us to have power.
I was exhausted and after taking a two-hour nap with the A/C turned down to 72...once the power was restored...I felt a little better.
Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.
Terlingua Dreams
Governors Landing Campground - Lake Amistad - Del Rio, Texas
When I have a power outage the of "what if it doesn't come back?" always seeps into my head.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to hear your power came back!
Rob, I find your comment refreshing as I have always pictured you to be super optimistic.
DeleteI must admit that that thought surprisingly never crossed my mind.
Nice that the power finally came back on for you. Nice leaving on our motorhome home, we can and usually are independent of power, with our batteries, solar and generator.
ReplyDeleteMany people were happy as I later learned it was an area wide collapse of the grid. Living in a motorhome does have its advantages.
DeleteToo bad that you had to be without power for so long.
ReplyDeleteLike George said there are advantages to living in an RV that is set up for being "Off the Grid".
Be Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
Being without power after the storm was not so bad because the rains brought the temperatures down to the mid 60's so opened up the windows to let the fresh air in. The problem was in the morning when the heat and humidity started creeping up again.
DeleteSorry for your experience. I have procrastinated getting a Harbor Freight generator since January for such an inevitable event.
ReplyDeleteMaybe tomorrow.
A generator would never help me because for one I could not possibly lift one and secondly they require gasoline something I do not like to have around.
DeleteThe beauty of living in a big city in Texas like yourself is that during a major power outage you get help from other cities and they get the grid up fast.
I would advise you to "quit procrastinating" and buy the generator...but that would be hypocritical of me being that...I am the QUEEN of procrastination.
Maybe tomorrow...
DeleteOn April 7th my power was off for 10 hrs following a severe T-storm. Thank God is wasn't this type of heat back then.
DeleteI think the "grid" thing you are talking about is more about brown-outs on high peak periods. When a t-storm knocks out transformers or creates line damages then it needs repairs and the grid system doesn't help there.
DeleteThanks to "El Zocalo" newspaper from Ciudad Acuña I am just finding out that there was a lot of damage in my neighborhood including some houses that had their roofs ripped off by the 60 mph winds.
DeleteSince I have not left the house I had no clue. I am not an expert on the power grid. I did not know about your April 7th incident.
Only heard on the KSAT12 about a power outage earlier this month where people went for several days without electricity and all their food spoiled and they had to sit outside of their apartments or houses to keep cool. Though I do not recall if it was weather related or not.
Oh that must have been awful once the heat and humidity built back up. At least you had your solar lights to see things. But maybe someday soon they will come up with a battery cooler. They have fans but you need a few and have them blowing right on you.
ReplyDeleteWe were lucky in that it happened at night and the rains brought the temperature down so I was able to capture the cool after I closed the windows in the morning...well, at least for a while.
DeleteOne thing that came back to light was that without Wi-Fi the cell phones did not work inside the house so I had to keep going outside to try to get a signal to call CPL.
In Del Rio you can not check into a hotel/motel until after 3:00 p.m. but that was going to be my back-up plan.