Storm of 2006

Many of you have probably heard of the storm that hit the west coast, many of you probably lived through it. Wow, was it a dozie!

At work the power stayed on but I live 4 blocks away and the power was out in my building. As I drove up to my place I was praying that the garage door was open so I could park my car underground. It was! but as I shut my car down and turned all of the lights of it went pitch black.

Do you know how hard it is to find your way to the door in a pitch black underground parking lot?I finally found my way to the door, but trying to get up the stairs and to my door took me 15 minutes because I had to feel my way the whole way because again it was pitch black.

So most of the evening was pretty boring, no TV, no one to talk to. I was lucky that my radio had batteries. At 9:30 I was so bored I decided to go to bed. Well, I had just gotten to bed but two minutes and the firealarm went off.

First thoughts that went through my mind was a candle fell and there was a real fire. So I threw on some jeans and sweatshirt and grabbed my purse (with everything I needed, the rest is just stuff) and helped the elderly lady next door down the stairs. There was confusion and panic in the hallways so I helped as much as I could. We all waited in the front for the fire trucks to come. It was a great time actually meet some of my neighbors, had a good time just hanging out.

After the fire trucks came they did a sweep of the place and determined that what happened was that the water was not being pumped to the sprinkler system on the 3 & 4th floors because no power to keep the pumps working. Once the pressure was low enough the firealarm went off.

So the fire department told us that we could all go inside. Everyone helped everyone inside and but 10 minutes of being in bed the firealarm goes off again. Well, out we track again into the cold and rainy. This happened 5 times in total last night and each time we had to leave the building.
When I left in the morning, I still didn't have power and I am amazed that I wasn't that late for work. But I sure am tired today.