Headed to Dayton around 2:00 PM, bright and sunny, and plenty hot. Had the car packed, medium cooler full of drinks & ice, extra food rations, etc...good weather for driving, clear & sunny.
We were at Wright Patterson for the summer Tattoo when this rolled in. The security folks told everybody to stay in their cars until the "storm" passed, they expected it to last until 5:30 or 6, and then the show would get started...
The storm rolled in...hard and fast, real fast. It shook everything in sight, we watched as many of the displays and attractions in the vendor area took flight...I put the car radio into seek to find a local station, just happening to run across one that was on site doing a live broadcast. They were trying their best to keep people informed of what was happening around them, but the situation was changing too fast for them to keep up. They finally went with telling everybody to just stay away until things calmed down.
The wind and rain let up pretty quick, but hit again just as fast and just as hard. The radio crew buzzed in & out until the sky finally started to clear a bit. We waited for news. The radio crew gave us updated as quick as they could, trying to keep up with the security details and the medical crews. Once the grounds were secure again the site personnel did a damage control estimate, and found that the main stage was bent about 6 feet to the right. From that point they cancelled the event, so we headed for the gate. An ambulance wwas hot on our heels, so we pulled over to let them pass, then hounddogged them through the gate and onto the surface streets. Everything was a mess, lots of debris and trees down everywhere. Picking my way through the traffic, I managed to find an alternat route to I-75, so we slipped off the main road. Traffic was slow, but still moving. We finnaly made it to the highway, then headed north.
The road was busy, but things were moving along at a pretty good clip. Every time we encountered a town we would pull off, only to find no power, lots of damage & debris. Piquia, Sidney, Troy, and all the other smaller towns up the I-75 corridor had been hit. Once we hit Wapakoneta and saw the same damage, we knew this was going to be bad, really bad. Pulling off at one of the Lima exits, we made our way through town, only to find more of the same we had just left.
And lines. Gas stations swarmed with people, long lines of people. Any restaraunt that stil had power was packed, with people waiting outside to get in. Stopping at the local Meijer`s, we went inside to check how things were, and the results were incredible. People grabbing everything they could (except water....imagine that..) and storming the checkouts. We made our way out of the meley and hit the road again, heading for home. Most of the territory was dark by this time, not a light to be seen. We stopped briefly outside of Columbus Grove to reconoiter on the situation, then took the back way into town.
It looks like a bomb had just gone off. In fact more like a lot of bombs had gone off. Trees, signs siding, you name it it was in the street. I carefully picked my way through town, trying to avoid the worst hit areas. We were heading for SR 65, but there was a train off the tracks in the middle of town....once again we took the back way, up old 65.
I tried to cut across after the first couple of roads, but the state patrol was blocking entrance to 65. A truck was on it`s side, along with a stretch of about 20 power poles that had gone down. So we turned around, back to the backroads...
We finally made it home a bit later, and could see the damage from a distance. Part of an outbuilding had lost its roof, shingles, pylwood and all, stripped down to the bare rafters. The house itself lost some shingled, a bit of flashing, and part of a wall was blown in. A brick wall. Solid brick. Two courses deep. blown into the attic. An awning over one of the windows was trashed, a could of trees down. And the plywood floor of our larger trailer was gone....just gone?
We checked the building and grounds over thoroughly, did as good of a damage assesment as we could in the dark, trying to button things up as good as we could. Then we headed back to town. I had let the gan cans run down ( poor planning on my part) so we needed to find fuel. I took a different route on the way back, still sticking with the backroads. I pushed hard until I found a Shell station outside of Cairo that was pumping. Only cash paying customers, no plastic. People were getting turned away, and not happy about it, not happy at all. We filled our cans and topped off the car, then made our way back along the same route.
I fired up the generator, plugged in the fridge & freezer, then hit the bed. Woke up early the next day, did a more thorough assesment, took lots of pics, then called the insurance. They set up a contractor to come out and secure everything, so we started setting up camp, figuring we were in this for the long haul.
The contractors showed up a couple of hours later, and did a quality job of taking care of things. I left them with fresh ICE cold bottled water and sent them on their way, then we go to work ourselves. We cut, we cleared, we stacked, finally got the yard back in shape. Then it was time to head inside. Opened every window in the house, got the fans running, and finished setting up camp. The grill was set up, camp stove in place, all the tools and utensils that were needed were at hand. Inside, we set up a water station, somewhere to corral all the empties sothey could get refilled. The weather radio got new batteries, all the flashlights and lanterns were accounted for, everybody was assigned their own personnal light (to keep on themselves at all times). All the extra appliances were moved out of the way.
OK, time for a deep breath....camp was set, fuel was procurred, now how long will this be "normal"? I called AEP, let them know about the lines down in front of our property, the girl on the phone was very glad to hear from me, a friendly voice in the midst of chaos. She explained what was happening in detail, what they were doing and when we could expect to see the crews out our way.
July 7th.
July 7th, this was June 30th. Weatherman on the radio said 90+ temps with a heat index of over 100 as far as you could see.
Not good. Time to hunker down, figure out our daily priorities. We worked in the early morning, cam in around 10:00. Slept in front of the fan for a bit, then headed for the basement. Played games and napped most of the mid-day, waiting out the worst of the heat, then went back out after the sun went down. Hauled water. I had a stash in the basement, after we used that up we started on the water heater. Took turns filling the jugs and bucket, hauling it upstairs to stage for later use. Fixed something to eat later after the heat died down, by this time it was past 9 or 10:00. Went to bed and reset for the next day.
This was life for the next few days. We did get some work done around the house wn had been putting off, so all was not lost, but the day to day chores took a lot out of us in the extreme heat. Things happened slow, nothing was rushed. We did venture into town tw odays after to check on the clean-up progress, things were statrting to look a bit better.
The we went by Arby`s. Only place in town open. Cars paked IN THE STREET and people waiting in line to get in....we went home. Back where it was safe.
Went out to check the genny last night about 2:30, the road just east of us had power! Lucky bastards (I do remeber saying a few choice words in their direction...must have been the heat...). Topped off the fuel and went to bed thinking we would be next.
Today. 3:00. Got power back. Rather a nice feeling, having the AC running again.
Learned a few things along the way..
You can never have enough water. Never.
You can do without a lot when you put your mind to it.
You can survive through a lot if you plan well, and adjust your plans along the way to meet changing circumstances...
So that`s my story and I`m sticking to it....
