By midday the power company had responded and dispatched one man in a truck to find the break. They had somehow determined it was on our property somewhere. So he went walking down into the woods, tracing the power line that criss-crosses our property.
He came back after awhile, wet and muddy, shaking his head. One of the first things he said was, "Do you have somewhere you can go for a few days?" Oh dear, I thought, must be bad.
A large tree along the creek had fallen across the power line. The tree had then fallen into the creek, trapping the line under it and in the water. The tree was too big for one man and the water in the creek was too deep and the current too fast.
He said the last time something like this had happened it was two weeks before the power was restored. Two weeks! My heart sank.
But thankfully, there's a happy ending to this story. The first person he phoned said they couldn't take the risk while the water in the creek was so high. Then he phoned another supervisor who said they would take the risk to remove the tree. Apparently there were 39 other connections downline that were also without power.
A couple hours later the same man returned with four trucks, nine men and several chainsaws. The sound of chainsaws that day was one of the happiest sounds I could imagine.
Later, curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see what they were doing. So when Daughter got home from school, we put on our rain gear and wellies and set off into the woods, following the sounds. Several times we felt completely lost as we tried to dodge fallen trees and huge muddy places. We finally got down to the creek line just in time to see them finishing up.
The power came back on around 5 p.m. And a beautiful rainbow appeared over the woods awhile later.
No comments:
Post a Comment