We here in the Tallahassee area woke up to an intense storm Friday morning. My power went out at 7:08AM. Turned out to be citywide and beyond. News later reported we had tornadoes hit us, lots of trees toppled and powerlines down. Damaged buildings. One fatality reported. My "Talgov" app on my smartphone kept updating us through the day on repairs. From what was being said I expected to be without power through Sunday at least. City water was unaffected, and I have plenty of food, and charger bricks to keep my phones powered. But for a few hours, cell use was spotty and even gone at one point. Either because the towers had no power or lots of people clogging and swamping the system. Both my service providers - Verizon and Cricket ( piggybacking off T-mobile or AT&T) were affected. One local radio station was taking calls and other input from citizens, reporting damages, open or closed businesses, sources for clean water and food, etc. Talgov reported that the city was having up to 20 other power companies in four states sending us people to help with repairs. My power came back at 7PM, almost exactly 12 hours after dropping. I had already cooked dinner on my camp stove. A neighbor called later telling me I had a tree down on my front fence. Luckily a small one with damage limited. Better than the huge tree that fell after 2018's Hurricane Michael that wiped out my entire fence and powerline, keeping me powerless for four days! My yard guy has already been here this morning, Saturday, and cut the tree up. He'll repair the fence. Being disabled and homebound, I can't do that myself. Others are still without power, but things are rapidly progressing. We often gripe about our city's government, but in this case they are doing well. This storm hit us out of the blue, no warning like we get with hurricanes. It's a good lesson for folks to look into their emergency preps, as Hurricane Season is fast approaching. Supposed to be more rain and storms next week. Hope it's not like this one!
