Lights Out

A few weeks ago, my neighborhood was hit by some terrible storms. Thrashing wind, walls of rain, flooding, and power outages raged the town. We were very fortunate to not experience any lives lost, but the surrounding areas were plunged into darkness for days, some areas being out for the better part of a week. All this in the middle of a heat wave. A not so great combo when you have small children and elderly parents all under one roof.

When the storm hit, we were trying to batten down the hatches around our property to try and ensure nothing went flying into the neighbors houses. In the middle of doing that, the wind hit. Strong enough to try and topple full-grown adults to the ground. Then in a mad rush to finish our tasks, the rain hit. And it didn’t just sweep in quietly, it rushed in. The rain pelted any surface it hit, slamming down in walls of water that made it hard to see two feet in front of you, let alone the neighboring houses. We rushed inside, drenched to the bone and ready to settle in for the long hall. Then we started hearing loud booms across the neighborhood, after one of the booms the lights flickered. Once, twice, and then they were down for the count.

We tried calling the electric company, none too successfully. There was an automated message that said “Thank you for reaching out, we are aware of the power outages and are doing our best to send our team to fix them. Expect the lights to return by the end of the week.” We all looked at one another. My parents and I weren’t overly concerned, we had been through similar things when I was younger. My daughter was with her dad for the day, we had coolers and Ice bags on hand so we could have access to food without opening the freezer or fridge. We had board games, books, battery powered lamps and fans, among other things to keep ourselves cool and occupied. My younger sibling however, hadn’t really been through anything like this before. He started freaking out. Asking what we were going to do, saying we should spam call places to get things fixed, and running around the house trying to find something that could fix our situation.

We explained that we shouldn’t use our phones unless for emergencies to preserve the battery life, and spam calling places would only end up irritating companies and answering services. They had enough on their hands at the moment and didn’t need spam calls from one family. My dad and I set to going and collecting flashlights and lamps, gathering the board games and such as my mom prepared the coolers. Dad ran to a store that still had power due to a back-up generator and grabbed small bites and drinks for the coolers, and like that we had supplies. My younger sibling, sat on the couch and pouted about our situation. He didn’t understand how we could entertain ourselves or “be able to survive without power”. That gave me a good chuckle. I told him we had supplies, still had running water and hot water since the pilot on the water heater was still going strong, and had books or games to keep ourselves busy. Their response was priceless. “We don’t have games; we don’t have power”. . . Acting like video games were the only games that existed. My parents and I had a good laugh, pulled out Yahtzee and told him to sit down and breathe, that we’d get through it as a family. They were skeptical to say the least.

It was surprising to see just how dependent on electricity my younger sibling was. They kept trying to ask Alexa what time it was, or asking his phone how to play Yahtzee, instead of using the analog clock or the directions pamphlet to aid them. The rain continued to throttle the neighborhood but in time and with the game going, we lost track of the storm and when it actually had stopped. But once the game was done, we realized so was the rain, for now anyway. My mom and I took that time to do what we usually did in these situations, check on the neighbors. We knew some trees had been downed and the wind had done some damage on surrounding houses so we proceeded with caution, but it was still our duty (or so we told ourselves) to check in with the elderly and any friends nearby. On our walk we were meet with different reactions. Some thankful for the check in and the care of thought, others gave a shrug and said it’s nothing they hadn’t been through before. But what I saw on our walk brought a genuine smile to my face.

Parents using the break in the weather to get their kids out of the house in any way they could. There were families walking, bike riding, doing the same as my mom and I. Some kids were still craving their video games and TV, others happy to not be so cooped up. Same with the parents. Some seemed to be at their wits end, telling their kids to keep walking to burn energy and time, that the power wasn’t coming on anytime soon and to get used to it, other parents just trying to go with the flow and make their lives as easy as possible given the situation. But despite it all, I saw a community coming together to help support one another. Talk across yards, check in with their elderly neighbors, exchange generators back and forth, so fridges didn’t go to long without running, even having meet ups to BBQ together and have the kids interact with one another. Despite the circumstances, and whether the people truly knew each other or not, I watched as strangers became friends, and friends became closer to family. Interaction was key, and it was enough to help people through the darkness.

The next day, the power was still out, but we were able to kill some time by going to pick up my daughter, and spending some time with family friends that were lucky enough to have their power back already. We did another round of check ins with neighbors, made sure people were still doing okay. By the time we got back home, we walked back in the door and the lights flickered again, once, twice, and they were back on. Over the course of the next few days, we still kept checking in with some people, just because my block got power back, didn’t mean the whole neighborhood did. Transformers would get surges and go back out again. This went on for a week, but once we were all back in the light, something magical had come out of the dark. The families and neighbors that had been checking in on one another through the ordeal, kept up with it after the fact. Days after the power outages, I saw families that never used to talk to each other, conversing across their yards, kids playing with other children they hadn’t before, parents and kids alike having play dates.

It seems like people remembered what it was like before video games reigned supreme, and the TV took command of the family. In the last few decades we let electric powered things dictate our lives, but when it comes down to it, we as creatures crave interaction. For my neighborhood, it took a power outage to make us realize that and act on it. It took the loss of power to bring a community back together again. Don’t let it be that way for you. It shouldn’t take the Lights going out for you to care about other people. Heat waves can still cause problems, so can a storm in general. There were many states affected by these storms, floods that claimed hundreds of lives, tornadoes that took down entire cities. In these events technology failed, but humanity didn’t. People helped one another, saved one another, had compassion for each other. Listen, check in, Act. Be the change in communities that you want to see.