Friday, June 16, 2023

 We're on 14 hours of no power.  The storm last night was awesome.  I mean that in a way that describes the severity and intensity of the winds up to 70 mph, continuous lightning/thunder, hail and rain.  The power just  came on a few minutes ago and then, after I disconnected the extension cords from everything, went right back off.  

Yeah, that was fun. We are running James' and my generators to power 2 freezers, refrigerator, 2 window ac units and then just electronic devices, including this desktop computer. And tho we have the internet router hooked up and powered, it isn't pumping out internet. Likely they are down as well.  In fact, most of the town is out of power. 80% of street lights are out causing mayhem on the streets.  Most businesses are closed and yes, my RV park is without power as well. I can't help them. I would have left my generator over there, but we have kids, a pregnant lady and a lot of food to keep frozen/cold.  

Lowe's was open, thankfully, for we didn't have enough extension cords. It was warm in there, they had a generator running but that just to power the lights, not cool the building.  I felt for the employees working there.  The few fast food places open? Unbelievable. Cars wrapped around entire buildings all the way out to the street and on to the street itself. Gas stations? LONG lines.  People all doing the same thing: getting fuel for generators.  I got 5 gallons, if this keeps up, it won't last an entire night.  Not with 2 generators running.  

I drove around the city. I've never seen so many trees downed in this town by one storm and I've been here since 2014 and I've been through a lot of storms.  

My room is cool. I have a 12,000 btu ac unit in here that will cool this room down regardless.  I mean, it's nice in here. They went and got the 5,000 btu unit from the property for their bedroom. The few minutes the power came back on? Cooled the house back down quite a bit.  

So, my phone is providing internet to the computer and the tv for the kids.  We are not going to work over there at the shed in this heat.  Just no way. I could take my generator over there but then we would be lacking over here.  It's just a chore to keep generators going and dealing with it here.  

On another note, the grumpy people are leaving. They told me about it a while back, the job is being shut down - due to the fact that they need those transmission lines for the summer. They will likely be back in the winter months. But, another lot emptied out.  I brought my rates down as low as they're going, ac units are running constantly, I'm not going any lower.  Might as well be giving it away for free what with electric bills.  

I have had several calls today, however, asking if I have power over there? Nope.  My park isn't in any better situation than the parks on the other side of town or south.  Or north. They were hoping for power and move over to my place. For that, I wish I did have power! I would have gladly taken all 3 of them! One good thing, a short term called asking to stay 5 more days? Stay as long as you wish : )

Well, only one person has contacted me about the power, these are temporary people that have no clue what they are doing. They are very rich - building a $750k home and have a few hundred thousand worth of trailer and vehicles - but they know nothing about RV's. He said he has a generator but there isn't a 50 amp connection on it.  No, but you can buy an adapter that plugs into the 30 amp outlet and on the other end, you plug in the 50 amp cord you have. You won't be able to run everything, but you should be able to run one of the AC units and your devices.  So, he went, got his generator and the last I saw, they were trying to hook it up.  

Well, the internet is slow. Verizon system is probably overloaded. The cable internet company is down as well, meaning everyone is going to be using their phones.  So, usage goes in and out.  Right now, I can't even get on Facebook and the only reason I can write this is because I was already on here. Sort of writing, stopping, writing some more, etc.  In fact, I'm heading back to the gas station.  These generators aren't exactly gas economical units. 

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We went out to eat with some friends at a local restaurant that actually has power. There's a handful of them that are open and they are packed.  But even with the power on and AC's fired up in that place, it was hot in there. Too many people, not enough air volume coming out of those ac units.  But,  it was nice to visit with people.  Home, fired the generators back up - we shut them off because the cords were blocking the front door from closing - ac units back on, freezers, fridge, etc. 

We came home to a brown out. Meaning a very low amount of electricity coming in just enough to make a few lights shine dimly.  So, maybe we won't have to deal with power being out all night long? I dunno, but after I go to bed, I don't care if the power does come back on, I'm not getting up in the middle of the night to deal with generators.  

RV park is a ghost town. I can still see through the cameras because they run on giant batteries and they have SIM cards that send the information through cell phone service.  The RV's are still there but most everyone is gone.  I wouldn't stay there either. I have received even more calls about the park. Is your power on? Or, "we are traveling through do you know the closest area where there are rv parks and the power is back on?".  I suggested they google waskom and greenwood, otherwise, they are pretty much going to have to drive clear out of the Shreveport area.  

I mean, I could only wish I had power on, I could fill the park up tonight.  

Well that's enough for this one. James headed down to Carthage for gas for the generator, his truck and another family that needs gas. Gas stations here ran out.  I don't know how a power outage equates into trucks not bringing fuel?  That's kind of strange.  Fuel either comes from Tyler or over in Shreveport.  


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