U Gotta Be Kiddin Me

And let me tell you. I and about 170,000 other people have been without power since early Monday morning. And what's sad is I can tell you everything that has happened since Monday. It all started about 6:10 am when a snap of lightning hit outside and I felt my whole house move and shake. I had to go bathroom so bad, but was scared. But I had too. So I sat down. And the tornado sirens started blaring. I then had a thought. Great, here I go...I am going to die on the pot. But felt so powerless cause I had no radio, no tv, and no internet. Little did I know then it would take 3 days for it to return. So here I was in the bathroom and my cats were going nuts. I knew too that my boyfriend was on the road home. And it wasn't safe outside. It was a eery green colored sky. The winds were so bad, I saw stuff flying that should not of been flying around. So finally my boyfriend comes home and he is totally drenched. He changes into dry clothes and says he has to go take a drug test for his new job. No problem. We get in the car and leave. We turn right onto 41st Street which, we always go that way anyways. Since we didn't have power we turned the news on the radio station and it is our local radio station interrupting the Todays Show. So listening, so many people were without power. The first initial number was 126,000. Ok that's about all of Moline,IL. But I knew that the numbers were much higher. There were so many people calling into the show, stating what they saw and how they are doing. If they needed help or what not. Well. SO MANY people reported seeing tornadoes. But the NWS reports none. What I think is that the people just saw the wind just take down so many trees and that is your first instinct. But in the end it was called a "derecho" which means a direct line of winds...straight lined winds. Which measured at 94mph at the Moline Airport. Which techincally measures to a F1 Tornado. We did not get much rain as it was more wind than anything else. This type of storm is also very rare.  As its never happened the entire time I have lived here which is over 30 years.  The past two days, I spent without power has been very aggravating and lonely.  I am used to playing on the internet and such.  Well.  No More.  I am going to enjoy life because as the saying goes.  "You don't know what you got.....til' its gone.!"   And let me tell you.  Its totally true.  I value electricity more than anything right now.  Even though we lost all our food, in the refridgerator anyways.  And before anyone says anything.  I have to say.  For two days straight ICE has been a hot commodity.  Most gas stations in our area were closed due to power outages.  And they were considered unsafe for one....but when the power goes...ICE MELTS.  So yes, no one could find ice anywhere.  So I couldn't save anything without having ice.  No one knew how long it would be before power was restored because this has never happened before with the power being out and having so many trees down on power lines.  Its going to take a long, long time.  Well.  By the time we got our ice, it was too late.  So instead we bought water, then got some water free.  Because we had no power.  Thank you Walmaaaart.  And no, I don't have renters insurance because money is way too tight right now.  I get so tired of people being so negative about things.  Give me a break.  This is one of those situations where you have to be here to see the magnitude of the damage.   And now we are being considered a Federal Disaster because of how much damage from the electrical poles.  We can also get help with the clean up fees.  Which means, the time you put in for your work. I really need to put up a link to my Flickr as I have a few pics up of the damage.  I took my camera to get some pictures.  But didn't manage to actually take the pictures because, some of the damage is of people's memories, their lives and I am not the one to put that on the internet.  Its not fair.  So instead...I cried for them.  Boy did I do that alot in the last three days.   Ok let's see if this works.  Click here to go to Flickr to view the few pictures I did take.

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