Power Outage in DC

What. A. Weekend.  When I left work Friday afternoon, I was very much looking forward to a relaxing weekend of movies, pool time, and just lounging around enjoying the wonderful AC.  Well, none of these things happened.  Friday evening, I was watching the movie Roommates (I don't do scary movies).  I decided it was getting a little too weird so I changed the channel to the Olympic trials.  Before I could see anything on the screen the power went out.  Now, at this point, I am freaking out and thinking somebody is trying to scare me.  Well, the power flickered and stayed on for about 5 more minutes.  This gave me enough time to get in my room, light some candles, and close my door.  The power went back off and I sat there hoping it was just a joke and that they'll be back on in a minute.


That never happened.  Creepy noises get extremely loud when you are sitting in the dark.  I sat on top of my bed with my knees hugging my chest for about 30 more minutes then decided I need to go to bed or I was going to torture myself all night waiting for the power to come back on.  I had no idea a storm had done this. It was a gorgeous Friday in DC when I came into my apartment that evening.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky.  I just heard loud winds rattling everything around me - well I thought they were ghosts trying to come and get me (haha).

Someone added a For Sale sign on the front of this car.
Glad to see they still have humor.

It's amazing how hot a room can get once the AC is shut off and your fan can't work.  I didn't sleep much Friday night.  I slept until about 2AM then went back to sleep and slept until 5AM.  That's when my weather system started going off.  An obnoxious beep every 20 seconds.  I was so hot and I just wanted to sleep so I grabbed my favorite pillow, my teddy bear, and the blanket my Mom made me and went to the couch.  I could faintly hear the beep but with my head buried in the couch and little sleep I feel asleep quite easily. I woke again at 8AM because my upstairs neighbor decided he was ready to be up and began his usual routine of running throughout the apartment.  The pool didn't open because the electricity keeps the pumps flowing which I guess keeps the pool safe?? 

This is a tree a few blocks behind my office building.

So after walking around the complex and realizing everyone around me was out of power I decided to go get lunch.  I was driving around charging my phone and began to notice this isn't just a Rockville storm, this was a DC Metro Area storm.  I was able to access phone service and a little bit of 4G once I was out of my apartment complex.  I called Mom to find out what had happened to the area and accessed Twitter to see what the rest of the world was up to.  Mom tells me millions of people in the area are out of power too.  While on Twitter the rest of the world was FREAKING out because Instagram quit working for not even 24 hours.  WOW.  This world just amazes me sometimes.

I finally got power back Saturday evening around 11PM.  I have never been part of a "natural disaster".  I was barely 4 when the blizzard came through Alabama so I don't remember much of that.  This was a huge eye opener to me.  While I've read and seen the aftermath of natural disasters, I had no idea what people went through when things like this happened to an area.  I was only affected in the smallest bit but it still makes you realize there are bigger problems in the world than an application on a phone not working.

DC is slowly recovering.  My office has power but just a few blocks behind us they are still without power and have trees laying on top of their houses and cars.  Maryland governor declared this the largest power outage in the history of Maryland and Virginia has declared a state emergency.  Please keep this area in your prayers as the three electric companies continue to work throughout the week to recover power for the area.  How does the most powerful city in the world function without power?  Well, it doesn't.