Friday, July 21, 2006

blogging from a disaster zone

Half a million people are without electricity in the City and County of St. Louis due to power outages from terrible thunderstorms on Wednesday Night.
I'm one of the lucky few. Our block is one of the only areas in the whole fox park/tower grove east neighborhood with power. We only have electricity on our side of the street. I guess we are on some magic grid, that we lucked out and didn't anger the gods of electricity.
The entire St. Louis metropolitan area has been declared a disaster zone. There's a boil order in effect for north county and the east side for all municipal water supplies.
Trees are down everywhere, walking or driving is like playing a lifesized game of frogger.
Forest Park Parkway, which only recently reopened is a minefield of downed trees and debris.
I had to cut Hazel and Nu's walk short this morning because the of the many electric lines that are down all over the neighborhood.
It took Helen and I forty-five minutes to find a gas station that had working pumps yesterday. I try to conserve gasoline by driving as little as possible, but I can't take the metrolink to work when the electricity is out all over the city. Everyone waiting in line for gas was very relaxed, the man in front of me said "It's really not that bad. Think about New Orleans last year. Those folks had it bad. Some still do." It was nice to hear someone put it into perspective.
I know that for some people though, it is really that bad.
This afternoon, a watermain broke on the south side, and now parts of The Hill and Clifton Heights are without water as well.
fortunately the thunderstorms brought cooler weather, which is a huge relief since the 107 degree highs were starting to take their toll. People were starting to get really sick.

2 Comments:

Blogger April said...

There's storms like this every summer, but this one seems to have reached an even more terrifying level. It's weird to read about my hometown getting decimated in national news.

10:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

that storm & the aftermath totally sucked.

thank you & mattie for letting me crash!!!!!!!!!!!! i owe you both bigtime. kisses.

12:51 AM  

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