60 Hours, Day Four

Tuesday, Nov. 1. Still no power. Crawled out of bed, quickly dressed, put on boots and checked the water level in the basement. Yikes! Now eight inches and getting very close to an electrical socket on the basement wall.

I called our electrician to ask whether it would be dangerous if the water reached that socket, only a few inches away. He didn't think so, which wasn't a very comforting answer.

As we were having breakfast at about 10:15 a.m., THE LIGHTS CAME BACK ON! Hallelujah! The best thing was the heat started coming up and the sump pump began working. We turned off all the unnecessary lights but just as we were getting warm THE LIGHTS WENT OUT AGAIN!

We were crushed; visions of more powerless hours raced through our minds. But wait: THE POWER CAME ON AGAIN AND THIS TIME IT STAYED. It was 10:30 a.m., 60 hours after the blackout.

What about the basement? With the pump working again, the surface water drained off within an hour, leaving only a wet floor. We could deal with that. BUT, the water heater was still out of commission. That meant another day without hot water until our plumber could check it tomorrow.

Meantime, my wife called our insurance company and they could not have been more accommodating. A representative arrived that afternoon, surveyed our basement and back yard and scheduled a visit from a cleanup crew also for Wednesday, Nov. 2, which promised to be a busy day.

Looking ahead, we're expecting an adjuster on Monday, Nov. 7 to tell us what we can expect in the way of an insurance claim. Our electrician also will be here Monday to repair exterior power lines and replace a number of old outlets in the house.

In the meantime, the Verona Public Works Department has done a fantastic job clearing the streets of debris. We still have to weave around downed limbs as we drive through town but we CAN get through.

We feel for those elsewhere who still don't have power and we wish them well. For the moment, however, we're good to go.
Tomorrow will be a busy day. Stay tuned.