Had to park in the parking garage of Atlanta Medical Center and walked around the block to get to my car, holding my pepper spray with my finger on the trigger the whole time. It was after 9 PM and it was pretty intimidating to walk alone. When I got to my car, my GPS was of course not working in the garage, I was trying to dig the parking ticket out of my pocketbook and retrieve my wallet to pay the attendant and figure out which way to turn out of the parking garage when my phone rang. It was my hubby calling to see if I was all right. I didn't know it but he was in the middle of a monster thunderstorm at home. It was just starting to sprinkle in my location.
As I got closer to home on I-75, the roads were terrible. Flooded and everyone was going super slow to try and avoid the huge places where high water had accumulated. When I got off my exit it was ominously dark--street lights and traffic lights were out. Then I turned into my Paces neighborhood.
Wow. High, sloped driveways and property were spilling tons of runoff water onto the streets which were littered with debris and large limbs. It was dark and still raining. Our streets are very curvy so you had to both avoid the high water and be careful who might be coming in your direction if you crossed over the center line in order not to flood out your car.
I had almost made it home when my headlights revealed one of the reasons the neighborhood was in darkness. A HUGE oak tree spanned the road and power lines dangled onto the road. OK. There is another way to reach our home from a different direction, so I managed to turn around and head around to come at it from the other direction. I was less than a block away from home when I saw yet another tree across the road coming from the other end of our street. I was blocked from going home!
Called 911 to report and was told there were over 30 downed trees in the area which had knocked out power poles, lines and blocking streets. The dispatcher told me to find a place to stay because it was going to be quite a while before they could clear the trees and make it safe to enter. Called Tom to let him know he was blocked in and I was blocked out.
Hungry. I didn't get to eat dinner before leaving home. Thought about staying with my daughter in Decatur and woke her up when I called her to see if it was all right. I knew I still needed to find a late night place to eat that was open and still drive 30 minutes to her house putting me there that much later, so I opted to just get a motel room for the night instead. No toiletries or change of clothing, not even a toothbrush or hairbrush. Just a room with a lock on the door and a bed. My phone battery was going fast and I had no charger with me and was 'on call' for two mommas due soon. What fun!
The next morning, I took a bath and put back on the same clothes from the day before and was able to get a toothbrush/paste from the motel desk. Breakfast at the motel. Headed home.
Challenging. Utility trucks and tree chipper trucks blocked every path, along with traffic cones and "do not enter" tape strung across the road. Finally on one end of my road, a workman gave me a tip. One of my neighbors where the tree was down blocking the road had a circular drive which wrapped around behind their home and came out on the other side of the downed tree. They were letting people use their driveway. I was able to get home and let Tom know he could get out, pack a suitcase of my most important needs, my computer and my cell phone charger and head back out the same way to a Starbucks with an electrical plug to recharge the phone. In my car were also all my midwifery equipment in case someone called in labor.
Fully charged up I headed back home hoping the roads were cleared and electricity was restored. The trees were cleared fairly early in the day but the workers were not letting people go back and forth because of the downed power lines.
Late in the day, we were able to leave and go get something for dinner and it was a little easier and we could see that Georgia Power had almost finished up linking the downed lines up and down the road. By the time we returned after dinner the power had been restored.
Tonight they are expecting a line of powerful storms to come through that may include tornadic activity. We don't intend to go anywhere and we may end up in the basement. We have food in the house and I'm planning on bathing before the storms hit. Now, if we can just keep some mommas from going into labor and my phone all charged up we should be good.
Atlanta has certainly been.....interesting.
1 comments:
Wow... I'm sorry it has been so crazy! We will be heading up there on Friday! I hope we don't run into bad weather when we head up there. :)
Post a Comment