It's apparently hurricane season down here. Did I know that before June 12th... no. Do I know that now.... yes.
So it was a regular Tuesday night. Amanda and I were closing. Well it started to look like it was going to rain. So we were just going to wait it out in the kitchen and do inside jobs like making diets, washing dishes, sweeping, etc... We had just made it inside when I hear it start to rain! O my gosh I have never seen it rain so hard in my life. Don't mind the talking, but there is a video below of the beginning of the storm.
Well shortly after taking this video we realize that there was some animals that needed to be moved inside if it was going to be raining this hard. So Amanda and I go venturing off into the storm. Okay I couldn't believe how hard it was raining. It really felt like someone was pouring a bucket of water on me. I couldn't see more than 20 or so feet in front of me! And the wind... o my gosh it was incredible. There was a point where we were walking, carrying tortoises, into the wind when I really felt like I was going to get blown away! So by the time we got back to the kitchen (which was only 20 or so minutes later) we were obviously drenched from head to toe but before we made it inside we realized that we couldn't hear the sub pump working and our whole back patio was flooded!
I run inside to find that the power has gone out. Now this boggled me. We have a generator that is suppose to kick on when the electricity goes out but for some reason it hadn't. So I call Gwen, who of course wasn't home and was out driving in this mess. She tells us that we will have to go out to the generator box and manually turn it on. By this time the storm has gotten pretty bad. The sky was a erry color of green and there were chunks of hail coming down with the rain. I was kind of scared to go back out into it, but nonetheless Amanda and I were sent on a mission. We found the generator but we couldn't open it! After trying for a couple minutes with our slippery fingers I finally sent Amanda to get a crowbar from the barn. The only thing we could think about while we are trying to pry open the door was the scene in Jurassic Park when Ellie is turning all the power back while being ambushed by raptors. Eventually we did get the door open, the generator working and returned back to the kitchen only to find that everything was flooded! I have never had to deal with this much water in my life so I was soooo glad that Amanda was there with me. We eventually got most of the water out and the storm let up. We finished closing and I sent Amanda on her way. Gwen got back and assessed the damage from the flooding, she also taught me about floating fire ant mounds and the crawdads that come to life after it rains :)
Around 9 o'clock I get a text from Amanda telling me that she finally made it home. She said that the roads were terrible. There were trees and powerlines down everywhere. I could believe it, our place was a bit of a mess too. Thankfully nothing was really damaged but there was going to be A LOT of cleaning up to do.
I was about to start the dishes from that night, Tuesday, when the generator shut off. This was not what I wanted to happen. Come to find out that our generator decided that it didn't want to work any more. So that meant no power at all. Boy did I know that I was in for an adventure. And an adventure it was.
It was dark (I love the picture below. I took it in our kitchen while I was doing diets Wednesday afternoon.).
It was stinky. No power no water. I didn't shower Tuesday or Wednesday, and it's not like I just sat around and fanned myself. I was sweaty and hot both of those days. I finally got to shower Thursday and a shower has NEVER felt so good in my life. I felt like I washed two layers of skin.
It was long. Days have never been longer in my life. You were working a mile a minute to get things done. So by noon you felt like it should be six because of everything you've gotten done.
It was wet. Everything was so soggy. I have never seen that much water in my life!
It was warm, the food that is. Of course our fridge runs on electricity. No electricity no fridge. This was our biggest problem. We eventually end up getting a big cooler and putting all our food in that. We were all very excited when we could open the fridge door and not have to worry about pulling everything out that we needed as fast as we could!
It was warm, the food that is. Of course our fridge runs on electricity. No electricity no fridge. This was our biggest problem. We eventually end up getting a big cooler and putting all our food in that. We were all very excited when we could open the fridge door and not have to worry about pulling everything out that we needed as fast as we could!
It was hot. Both nights the power was out I just laid in bed sweating. I hardly slept. Ya I was tired but it was WAY to hot to fall asleep.
The power came back on Thursday morning and I have never been more excited to turn on a light than I was then. Boy the weather down here is so different, it is going to take some getting use to.
