The last several days have been an incredible whirlwind here in the Northeast. A million people have lost power, which means they’ve lost heat, and many have been without water as well. Here’s the Lowdown:
Thursday night brought hard rain with 31-33 degree tempreatures, causing ice to form around every piece of grass and every branch of every tree (including bushes). After driving home from an amazing concert, Carie and I were wet and cold and tired, inspiring us to hit the sack.
I woke up at 4:00 am the next morning to no electricity, and the sound of crashing trees every 5 minutes or so. It didn’t help to look outside, because there were no lights to be able to see anything. Looking out a window meant looking into blackness, and simply hearing the sound of crashing. Very intimidating indeed.
On Friday morning, Carie’s school hadn’t cancelled school yet (the “super” has the same reputation as a baptist pastor in the midwest on a Sunday morning when it comes to cancellations), so I told Carie I’d go out and put some gas in the car for her, and in the process let her know if the roads were safe enough to go to her school, a 25 minute drive through backoads and lots of trees.
I thawed the car out (oddly enough the pavement on the driveway and on the roads were fine) and backed out, eventually taking a right out of the driveway. I drove approximately 10 feet before I could no longer drive through the large tree branches draped across the roads, not to mention the power lines daring me to “see if I was man enough.”
I was not. I backed up back into my driveway, then decided to take a left toward Holden. I drove approximately 20 feet before I could no longer get through the trees. (yes, there were literally trees across th road) I told Carie that I was her new superintendant, and pronounced school to be cancelled. Any other day this would have been a day of glorious celebration, but the house was already getting a bit chilly at this point, so it was time for further decisions.
Friday night we, like so many other families in Ct, Mass, NY, NH, and Maine, left our house which was devoid of electricity and heat, and headed into Worcester. For whatever reason, the large city in our vicinity had major pockets of electricity, and Carie’s mother lived in one of those pockets.
Friday night a pastor from Connecticut, only about 30 minutes from Fellowship, called me, and asked me via voicemail why I never answer my phone. I was only mildly amused at his humor. I called him back on Saturday morning, and he explained to me about some event he was having at his church in January. Then he asked me how I was doing.
“Ummmm”, I said slowly. “I’m in the midst of a major problem where no one has any power in the whole of my town, and we’re looking for shelter and tree removal help. People are freezing, and a lot of people can’t get out of there driveways.”
“Oh”, he said shocked. “I had no idea.”
Then on Saturday afternoon Carie and I helped prepare some food at a shelter in Princeton, an area that was hit particularly hard, and when we returned to our house, our power had returned, 40 hours after it removed itself from our presence. We rejoiced, then made arrangements for church.
Church on Sunday morning was quiet, though we had about half our attendance. Few in Holden and the surrounding areas knew that we had church, because email was non-existent. Phone calls were made, but not everyone could be reached.
But we utilized our service as an opportunity to connect people and resources. On Sunday evening, we had sent out meals to shelters and fire departments around the area.
An amazing thank you should go out to all the power company and tree removal workers who have worked tirelessly and throughout days and nights to get people’s electricity back on and ultimately there heat.
But I’m writing this to let you know, there are still tens of thousands of people who do not have heat and electricity and we are going into a weekend of 10 degree temperaures. As some friends of mine said once,
Much prayer, much power. Little prayer, little power. No prayer…
