Mother Nature Throws a Celebration
Mother Nature must have been very excited by the births of our boys. She seems to throw a big celebratory event each time!
Michael was born in August 2003. We were living in Virginia at the time. About 2 weeks after his birth, hurricane Isabel came right up the East Coast, and seemed to sit over Northern Virginia for several days. Thankfully we didn't suffer any flooding at our house, but throughout the area, the rivers overflowed and basements were flooded. Most of the area also was without water service, but again we were lucky.
However, we did lose power...
... for FIVE DAYS!
So there we were with our first child only a couple weeks old, camping out in the basement of the house so we could all hang out around fewer candles and one battery-operated boom-box (usually tuned to the 24-hour news station). Everything in the freezer was thawing, so we lit the gas stove with a match, and threw everything in to the pot. Ground beef, chicken breasts, frozen veggies, soup stock... whatever was there. Our own little batch of stone-soup.
After a couple days, it was enough. No power, no lights, no fresh food, no internet (heaven forbid!), and all of us down in the basement. My parents had power, so we went up there to stay for a few days. Of course bringing LOTS of dirty laundry! We finally went back home once we knew power was back, based on calling our number and waiting for the answering machine to come on.
Fast forward almost 2 1/2 years. Now we are living in South Carolina. Certainly one wouldn't expect Mother Nature to have any celebration here in December when Matthew was born, right?
Wrong!
Matthew was born at about 3:30 p.m., and that evening, the storm started. In Upstate South Carolina, we don't get much snow. We get ice. And from what we've seen, we get ice BAD. According to the news reports, this was the worst ice storm in 200 years!
Roads were coated with ice, and there were lots of accidents. Trees were coated too, and as a result were falling left and right. Of course that usually means power outages. The power even went out at the hospital (although we were still running on generators). Cable tv and internet was all out.
So for the most part, while I laid in the hospital with my beautiful baby Matthew, Greg was stuck at home with Michael. He did get in the next day for a short visit, but had quite a bit of difficulty getting back home. Trees were blocking roads everywhere. All the street-lights were out, as were the traffic lights. It was pitch dark.
...until he drove in to our subdivision. Everything else was dark, but our subdivision was lit up like... well... CHRISTMAS! (It was December, after all!) We never lost power at home (although the cable tv was out for several days). I'm sure the neighboring communities just loved seeing all our Christmas lights glowing while they had no power at their homes!
Much of the area was without power for a week. It literally took months to clear all the fallen trees. We were lucky to suffer minimal tree damage compared to the rest of the region. About 1/3 of one large River Birch came down, and we lost some big branches off of the other trees. Thankfully nothing hit the house or fence.
Who knows if we will ever have any more children. But if we do, you better watch out. There are sure to be storms coming as Mother Nature throws a celebration.
Michael was born in August 2003. We were living in Virginia at the time. About 2 weeks after his birth, hurricane Isabel came right up the East Coast, and seemed to sit over Northern Virginia for several days. Thankfully we didn't suffer any flooding at our house, but throughout the area, the rivers overflowed and basements were flooded. Most of the area also was without water service, but again we were lucky.
However, we did lose power...
... for FIVE DAYS!
So there we were with our first child only a couple weeks old, camping out in the basement of the house so we could all hang out around fewer candles and one battery-operated boom-box (usually tuned to the 24-hour news station). Everything in the freezer was thawing, so we lit the gas stove with a match, and threw everything in to the pot. Ground beef, chicken breasts, frozen veggies, soup stock... whatever was there. Our own little batch of stone-soup.
After a couple days, it was enough. No power, no lights, no fresh food, no internet (heaven forbid!), and all of us down in the basement. My parents had power, so we went up there to stay for a few days. Of course bringing LOTS of dirty laundry! We finally went back home once we knew power was back, based on calling our number and waiting for the answering machine to come on.
Fast forward almost 2 1/2 years. Now we are living in South Carolina. Certainly one wouldn't expect Mother Nature to have any celebration here in December when Matthew was born, right?
Wrong!
Matthew was born at about 3:30 p.m., and that evening, the storm started. In Upstate South Carolina, we don't get much snow. We get ice. And from what we've seen, we get ice BAD. According to the news reports, this was the worst ice storm in 200 years!
Roads were coated with ice, and there were lots of accidents. Trees were coated too, and as a result were falling left and right. Of course that usually means power outages. The power even went out at the hospital (although we were still running on generators). Cable tv and internet was all out.
So for the most part, while I laid in the hospital with my beautiful baby Matthew, Greg was stuck at home with Michael. He did get in the next day for a short visit, but had quite a bit of difficulty getting back home. Trees were blocking roads everywhere. All the street-lights were out, as were the traffic lights. It was pitch dark.
...until he drove in to our subdivision. Everything else was dark, but our subdivision was lit up like... well... CHRISTMAS! (It was December, after all!) We never lost power at home (although the cable tv was out for several days). I'm sure the neighboring communities just loved seeing all our Christmas lights glowing while they had no power at their homes!
Much of the area was without power for a week. It literally took months to clear all the fallen trees. We were lucky to suffer minimal tree damage compared to the rest of the region. About 1/3 of one large River Birch came down, and we lost some big branches off of the other trees. Thankfully nothing hit the house or fence.
Who knows if we will ever have any more children. But if we do, you better watch out. There are sure to be storms coming as Mother Nature throws a celebration.
posted by Susan | 8:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home