We have had a hot, dry summer. We have been threatened with Stage 4 water restrictions, no watering or outside use of water of any kind, for anyone. Imagine how that would affect certain businesses, like car washes and locations, like botanical gardens. It was so hot that stores couldn’t keep fans in stock. We had four column fans in our home alone, two in our bedroom and two in the living room. For a while, they were on 24/7.
And all of that came to a crashing end, for a while, yesterday. The forecast was for heavy rain and high winds, and they came. One window upstairs was almost pulled off our house before we got to it. The rain had come in the wide open window, soaking the dresser and carpet beneath it. And to top it all off, the power went out. Not just for a few hours but for more than 24 hours.
It is amazing how lost you can feel without power in your home. There was virtually nothing to do. Well, I guess we could have moved furniture around or painted, but we couldn’t do our usual Saturday chores. Dale was vacuuming out the ducts, getting ready for when we finally do have to use the furnace. I was looking through recipes on my iPad, trying to figure out what to make for dinner. The power went out with a mighty bang (we later realized it was the upstairs window). I had seen the lights flicker a few times, and there were branches on the ground from the trees on the other side of the walkway, but we weren’t prepared for no power.
Looking back, we should have been. The weather system that caused the storm, a trough of colder northern air merging with warmer, moisture-laden southern air, occurs often around here, just not usually in August. But I guess we can kiss “usual” weather good-bye what with the warm sea blob, and el Nino and global warming. Anyway, after a few hours of dusting and tidying up and then reading, I was ready for a cup of tea. Nope. Nothing to boil water on. (We later realized we could have used the barbeque but that didn’t hit us until Sunday morning when Dale made tea and great breakfast sandwiches out there.) We couldn’t cook anything, all we could make were things like sandwiches or cereal. Finally at about 5:30 we decided to venture out. The sting was out of the storm, the rain had let up and the wind had died down. Twitter and online sources were telling us that there were pockets of power, thank goodness for Rogers LTE, as we had no Telus wifi. So we got our phones and charge cords and piled into the car.
Most people on the road were using the four-way stop procedure quite well. Some people, however, are idiots. They figure if the person in front of them is going then they can too. Or they try to be overly polite – after you – which messes the whole system up. We thought we would head towards Coquitlam Centre as we knew it had power, but the road west on Lougheed from Shaughnessy was closed, manned by policer officers so we headed east. Pitt Meadows looked promising. The first little mall area was fully lit but only had fast food, so we continued on. We saw a Boston Pizza that was open and we backtracked to it. There was a 45 minute to an hour wait, so we got back into the car. However, I did see a bank that had power and I got some cash. You know, one should always have cash, just in case something happens, like the power goes out and businesses can feed you but they can’t take your cards.
We had seen that further into Pitt Meadows there was no power, at least not at the traffic lights so we tried Maple Ridge. Nope. The traffic report on the radio was telling us that the roads were clear east of Metro Vancouver, so we continued on, joking that we would stop when we got to Hope. Abbotsford was quite well lit up. We tried another Boston Pizza but they weren’t seating anyone as they were too busy with pick up and take out orders. Okay. The IHOP a block away didn’t have power, at least that’s what the sign said. I think they didn’t have power earlier so they sent their staff home. We could see the Red Robin across the street had power, and a full parking lot, so we headed over.
We had only a few minute wait before we were seated in this very busy restaurant. Our server told us that the power came back on around 5:00 and they called both shifts in to deal with the crowd. Our food came quickly and was great. Our server was attentive and efficient and we tipped her accordingly. We could see the workers in the bar area. They never stopped getting fountain drinks, making milkshakes and pulling pints. We hope the servers paid them, and the kitchen staff, out of their tips.
The drive home was easy. We were mostly on the freeway so we didn’t need to use the four-way stop that often. As we got closer to home we started checking lights. Yup, they have lights, yup, they have lights, nope, we don’t have lights. It was almost sad to come home to a dark house, with no possibility of a cup of tea or a hot bath. And Dale uses a CPAP machine. I would have to stay awake all night to keep him alive, to shake him into breathing again. We both actually had a terrible night; me keeping him alive and him worrying about staying alive and keeping me awake.
Dale got up at 3:00 in the morning, unable to sleep. He thought that if he left at least I might get a few hours of good sleep. It was good that he got up. The ice in the ice maker in the fridge was just starting to melt. He emptied it before it drained out all over the floor. He came back to bed around 5:00, freezing cold. Around 8:00 we both got up and Dale made the breakfast I mentioned earlier. Oh, and Dale had two cold showers during all of this: once before we went out for dinner and once on Sunday morning. I did not. Thank goodness I had showers and washed and styled my hair on Saturday morning before the power went out.
After our lovely breakfast we headed out again, mostly to drive around so we could charge our phones, but also to get a few supplies. The stores in the first strip mall heading west on the Lougheed had power and customers, the Canadian Tire and Super Store did not. And the traffic lights further up were not working. The drive to Lougheed Centre was painfully slow, mostly because of the huge intersections. It was hard for people to figure out what to do with two turning lanes in each direction along with at least two lanes going straight through in each direction. Everyone finally figured it out and we got to the mall. We got in and out as quickly as we could but it was very busy. We came home to discover our power was on! Hours and hours ahead of the projected time! I immediately tweeted our thanks to BC Hydro. Those crews work very hard during storms and they were already stretched because of the work they had to do as a result of all the forest fires.
So, we survived the first storm of the season. We will make sure we are better prepared for the second one. I see us using our small butane stove in our future, and more canned foods. I think we only have cans of tuna, mushroom soup and black beans in the pantry. It was good to know that the fridge stayed cold-ish for the 24 hours we were without power, and the freezers kept the frozen food frozen. And that was in August, keeping things cold in December or January should be a piece of cake. However, keeping us warm might be harder. Sigh, I see more preparations in our future.