Blackout.

So, you guys may have heard about this blackout SoCal experienced yesterday. It started at 3:40. I was at work (at school) and all power went out. This is quite exciting to 4th graders. They couldnt get enough of it and had millions of questions. I asked my co-workers if this was a first time occurance and apparently it was. This was shocking to me, with the MN storms we get power outages happened on a regualr basis. The only difference between a storm blackout and this blackout was that it lasted for about 12 hours. The power went out from Yuma, AZ to the coast of CA starting about 35 miles north of Carlsbad and going a little farther south than Tijuana, Mexico.

The power being out wasnt the scary part, I knew it would come back eventually... The scary part was all the traffic and the accidents that were happening. Street lights werent working, not even blinking red. People were not following the 4 way stop rule when the lights went out. The freeways were jammed and it took people hours to get home. Since the outage happend at 3:40 all companies were shut down and people were allowed to leave for the day. Robbie left base right away and it took him over 2 hours to get home. The traffic coming from San Diego going north was terrible!!! Lucky for me, we couldnt ditch all the students and start our dreaded commute home. We started making phone calls right away for parents to come get their kids. This was a very long process. The last family was picked up at 7:25. Talk about a long day for little 1st graders! Most parents took so long to get there because of all the traffic. As the parents were coming in to get their kids there were crazy rumors going around. Some were true some were not. True: Stores had to be closed because people were stealing everything. True: Most convience store ran out of water, candles, and flash lights. True: Target jacked the price of candles up to $25 per tealight candle (yes the teeny tiny candle). False: The outage was caused by a terroist attack. True: Gas stations closed. True: Most cell phones did not work.

Anyways, just thought I would share a little about this madness. It was crazy to see how freaked out people were, they really thought the world was going to end I swear.

On the plus side- I left work at 7:30 missing all the traffic going south. It took me the regualr 20 mins to get home. I think it is faster when the lights are broken! We had a neighborhood BBQ which was lit by candles and everyone brought over hodge podges of food. We met some new neighbors (who knows if I will remember what they look like since we were all in the dark) we had some great conversations, and we had an excuse to go home early and go to bed! I was sleeping by 10! The best part of all, Robbie and I dont have to work today! So, we have the best of both worlds- power is back and we get a long weekend!

Happy Weekend!

Oh and check out these pics- http://www.signonsandiego.com/photos/galleries/2011/sep/08/power-outage-hits-county/