Lessons Learned From a Mini Emergency

I've done several posts recently about being ready for emergencies.  Saturday we experienced a mini emergency. 

I was happily working on a coffee cake.  The oven was preheated.

Folding in the beaten and stiff egg whites.

The lights started flickering and kept flickering.  It was pouring rain outside.  I looked out the  kitchen window and saw that the light pole down the road was leaning and there were sparks of fire at the top of it.

The power completely went out and the picture out the kitchen window escalated into this:

 

Someone crashed into the power pole and it was a major operation to get the pole straightened and the power restored.  The power was off for 5 hours.

Like most people, without power everything comes to a standstill at our house.  What started out as an enjoyable day, staying inside while it rained, turned into a test of our patience!

I wasn't sure what to do with the pan of cake batter ready to go into the oven.   Oven wouldn't work, and the refrigerator door needed to be kept closed .  I had put off finishing a baby quilt that I needed for a baby shower the next day until the afternoon.  hmmm.... sewing machine won't work without power.

Oh, well, nothing to do except make the best of it.  At least we weren't involved in the wreck and didn't have to stand outside in the rain directing traffic, or be the repairmen working on restoring the power.

I didn't get lunch made before the power went out, so we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chips.

We couldn't watch TV, so we got out the battery operated radio and listened to some beach music.

We sat on the front porch and watched all the commotion going on, traffic backing up and the rain.  No cars were allowed to go by our house and the view directly in front of the house was a peaceful one.

The power being off for 5 hours is just an inconvenience.  But, it reminded me how much we depend on electricity.  I was so glad to have plenty of bottled water and food that could be eaten without a stove.  But, in this mini emergency, we could have just gotten in the car and driven somewhere until the power came back on.  Would have been a good time to go see a movie, go shopping, or visiting.

I considered this to be a trial run for an extended power outage.  It really made me think.

The coffee cake survived the power outage too!  I put the pan of batter in the refrigerator and then kept the refrigerator door closed until the power came back on.  Then I threw it in the oven.  My crumbly topping sank to the bottom, but it tasted good anyway.