June 18, 2008

No Way Home

Midland experienced a "heat burst" storm last night which knocked out the power beginning at 11:30 last night. The power wasn't restored until we were leaving for work around 7:45 AM. We scrambled around in the dark, feed the baby, and prepared for work. All fine and out the door we go. Little did we know.


Downed Powerlines

We left and noticed that the major intersection was shut down and the electric company was fixing the power. The "heat burst" had somehow spiked the temperature to 97 F at midnight and came with wind gusts as high as 62 mph. This combination snapped several telephone poles and had the power lines on the Loop overpass. The company had their work cut out for them.


Blocked Intersection

Coming home, the intersection at our apartments only entrance was still blocked. And we quickly found that there was no way to enter our apartment complex. One way was barricaded with a detour into the neighborhood. Only one problem, the detour came out of the neighborhood in bad spot for us. The only way into our complex would be to drive the wrong way down the one way access road to the second entrance. Not wanting to break any laws, we park in the neighborhood and walk to our car.

We had hoped the intersection would be open by later tonight so we could move our cars into the parking lot, but as of 9 tonight, the intersection is still closed and our apartment complex is shut off from the rest of the world. We do have electricity and were able to cook some food. Guess we'll just have to walk a little further to our cars in the morning.

2 comments:

Becca said...

Crazy west Texas weather!! We had a heat burst in Lubbock a couple of years ago but I don't think it caused as much damage as you are describing. I had to do a problem about it on an exam!

Anonymous said...

Funny. When I was in Minnesota this summer they had a heat burst that buckled some roads. The high that day was 87!!

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