Holiday Weekend? Pfft. Right.

So, technically the 4th of July isn't until Wednesday, but there were still tons of people celebrating it this past weekend.  Lots of people traveling.  Unfortunately for those in West Virginia and some of its surrounding states, Mother Nature decided to put a crimp in the celebrations.  

Friday night brought some of the worst storm damage we've seen in a really long time.  We had thunderstorms with 60 mph winds.  My brother swears he saw a chipmunk being blown/rolled up the road by the wind.  Whether he's telling the truth or not, who knows?  I wouldn't argue with him though.  The winds were crazy.  I love storms, and I was enjoying this one...even when the power went out.  It always feels like sort of an adventure when the power goes out.  We get to light candles and find other ways to entertain ourselves that don't involve electronics.  I did a lot of reading, Sudoku puzzles, and talking to a friend (okay, so I did use my cell phone a bit -_-).  The thing is, when the power goes out, you always just assume it will be back on soon after the storm is over, right?

Wrong.

It went out around 8pm at my house.  It didn't come back on until somewhere around 3 am on Sunday morning, about 31 hours later.  In some places, it's still out.  We were some of the lucky few that got power back that early.  

Around noon on Saturday, my mom got a call from a friend saying that our county would be turning off its water supply to conserve water for emergencies.  Everyone was advising each other to collect as much water as they could to last until power and water were restored.  Earlier that morning, my stepdad talked to someone from the power company who said that they weren't sure when the power would be back on, but that they were estimating, at that point, that it might be 2-5 days.  

According to CNN, somewhere around 650,000 people in West Virginia are still without power.

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This photo was posted by an anchor at WCHS Radio 58:

According to the anchor, Chris Lawrence: "... it's a 500KV transmission line (the INTERSTATE of POWER) taking electricity from our WV/OH power plants all over the
 eastern seaboard. It's located in Ellenboro between Parkersburg and Clarksburg on Route 50. This is one of three that are twisted down and in the process of being repaired."

This was posted by the same anchor, on Facebook.  It was taken in Parkersburg, WV.

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Keep in mind, this is going on throughout almost the entire state.  Remember those travelers?  Many gas stations couldn't sell their gas because the actual pumps were run by electricity.  Those that could sell their gas ran out of it insanely fast because they were immediately swarmed by everyone that knew about them, as soon as it became clear that there were few places selling it.

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These were posted on WDTV 5's Facebook page:

This is just one example of what the gas stations who were able to sell gas looked like.  There were lines that went on for what seemed like forever up the roads.

This is the front of Ollie's Bargain Outlet in Bridgeport, WV.

A broken power pole.

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I hope everyone out there is doing ok and dealing with the heat and has their power back soon, if you don't have it already!  Looks like today's going to be another hot one...

Here's to hoping we don't get anymore storm damage like this again anytime soon!