Thank you, BC Hydro!
Wednesday afternoon, we got up rather late. I don’t know why, but I’ve been sleeping 10 – 12 hours/night, and I’ll be feeling it later when I start having to sleep 4 hours/night to get my grad project done. At any rate, we didn’t get up until 1pm on Wednesday. I went to the bathroom, and shortly thereafter the lights dimmed a bit. Once, twice… off… then on… then off, and they would not come on again until 5:00 the next morning. It was an exciting day. My guilt for having slept in pretty much disappeared when I realised that a) there was nothing I could do about it now, and b) had I actually gotten up when I was supposed to, I might have lost tons of work by the computer shutting down. So I consider myself lucky.
Our living room and fish tanks decked out with candles.
Photo taken by my boyfriend.
It’s been raining sideways in the Lower Mainland. That day we left before it got dark, with the intent of driving as far as we needed to in order to find a place with power. It was an exciting prospect, but I suggested we see if our local commercial area had power, and it did. After all, the roads were a mess with long lines of traffic and tree bits all over the place. We found a dollar store and somehow managed to spend $18! With extra candles and more matches, we went to dinner at Ricky’s around 4:30. Fortunately for us, too. Everyone started piling in in greater numbers after 5:00, to that bright oasis in the darkness. It continued to rain, and even when the rain died down, the wind continued to smack into the city. Over 200,000 homes were without power. We lost ours for 16 hours, and I think other neighbourhoods fared worse.
Accidents happened everywhere, from smaller side roads and a residential cul-de-sac, to main roads and highways. Roads were closed, and I was glad we didn’t venture far.
It was so unreal being on our street with all the lights out. Our home looked romantic with candles lit everywhere, and stayed quite warm. Buuuut boredom set in, so we went to see Borat, which I won’t talk about. That night’s lack of sleep contributed to a sore throat last night and this morning, which was alarming because it’s never a good time to get sick when there are things to get done! As such I stayed home today in hopes of feeling better and to get more rest. The last thing I want is to get sick with 3 weeks left of school and not a moment to recover!
The torrential rain left us with water turbidity, and water warnings. Out here it’s been cleared, so I guess I’m glad I don’t live in North Van anymore as they’re still affected.
One last thing is a big THANK YOU to BC Hydro’s hundreds of hard-working men and women for their hard work and risk-taking to get all the power back on and trees cleared out. Thank you to everyone else who worked hard that night, from phone companies to waitresses overwhelmed by hungry people!
