Sunday, October 18, 2009

Worst Weekend

NWS: 6 inches of snow in some parts of Pa.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - An autumn stormed has dumped as much as six inches of snow in parts of northern Pennsylvania.

The National Weather Service says between five and six inches fell in State College, which set a record for earliest snowfall on record. The previous earliest snow there was one-tenth of an inch on Oct. 18, 1901.




On Friday morning, I woke at 2:00 a.m. to my bedroom in complete darkness. I had left my light on, and was wondering where it had gone. I got up an flipped the switch a few times, to no avail. A quick trip around the house showed than none of our lights were working, and a look out the window revealed an entire street with no light whatsoever. It had been snowing since 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, and was up to 3 inches in my neighborhood.

I was forced to shower for work in the dark, find clothes to wear by the dim light of my cell phone, and dig out my winter boots from the very back of the closet. Talking to everyone at work, the entire Park Forest neighborhood, where I live, was out of power. Those with electric water heaters weren't able to shower in the morning, and everyone was without heat. Hoping Allegheny Power would have everything up and working by the time I got home at 10:00 a.m., I wasn't terribly worried about things. The problems were far worse than I knew.

In Park Forest alone, two transformers had blown and one power line was down. In the Downtown area, next to the University, there was another transformer blown. Down Circleville Road, between Park Forest and Downtown, there was at least one more power line down and a possible blown transformer. All this was on the north end of town, and I still have not heard how badly the south end was hit.

I hid out at my boyfriend's apartment all day, because they still had power on the east side of town. They had heat and electricity and were able to open their refrigerator. My roommate sent me a text at 7:30 p.m. that said our power was back on. Unfortunately, there are still neighborhoods that don't have electricity. At least, as of bedtime Saturday there were still crews out trying to find and restore all the downed lines and blown transformers.

I bought a wool coat. It has snowed 6 inches in the middle of October, and I am miserable. I want to go back to the desert, please.

2 comments:

Tio Bruno said...

It was 102 yesterday, 97 today. Come see me.

granny g said...

It's been a perfect 78 degrees in Richfield and no wind so we set up the Badmitten game and have been playing. Skinny you and snow should not mix. Don't freeze to death I need you.