Ok, that title may have been a bit hyperbolic.
Over a week ago there was a Hurricane. I'm too exhausted to remember its name right now ... let's just call it Karen.
Due to this annoying Karen Hurricane, I lost my electricity and internet. I just now got it back... 10 days later.
This irritating Karen hurricane turned into a Category 4 and the eye was headed directly toward my city....the middle of nowhere Texas ... so there was a mandatory evacuation.
The last time this happened to me I was living in Long Island, NY... Hurricane Sandy.
At the time I was living across the street from a canal. Less than a mile down the street was the ocean so there was a mandatory evacuation.
I had nowhere to go so I didn't leave.
I told myself that I would never do that again.
Watching the water flood down the street and fearing I would drown is something I never want to experience again.
Luckily, my place did not flood.
I was, however, without electricity for 2 months.
2 ...
Months ...
Anyhoo, we have 12 cats due to the kitten extravaganza that we recently experienced.
Anyone with cats knows that they generally do not like to travel. They are very territorial and extremely attached to their territory...causing much stress when they are relocated.
But, we live just a couple hundred feet from a bayou and this area tends to massively flood during such storms so we had to evacuate.
The kitties had a horrible time ... most of them throwing up from the stress. And by the time they started to adjust to the new location, it was time to move them back home again.
So, we came back home last Friday to no electricity and 95-degree weather.
Constant heat and no relief from it is exhausting.
Good times.
On day 3 of this lovely experience I was sitting in my car to get some AC and typed this on my phone:
Life without electricity after a natural disaster:
Try to get a generator but they are all sold out
Get a battery which charges phones and a fan
Clean up cat vomit from stressed out and overheated cats
Take a cold shower which actually feels good
Immediately start sweating after getting out of the shower
Try to fall asleep, unsuccessfully, in what has essentially become a sauna, with the small fan blowing hot air on you
Battery dies in the middle of the night
Get up in the morning, dripping with sweat.
Spend the day trying to find ice for the cooler, food, water, and trying to find a better battery and/or generator
Clean up more cat vomit
Try to eat even though you just feel sick from being overheated
Oh! Someone 2 cities over has offered to lend us their generator!
Go get generator
Go get gas for generator
Go get a thousand extension chords
Go get more fans
Hook up the AC unit in the bedroom
Take another cold shower
Get an actual decent nights sleep with AC
Get up
Get more gas
Try to find more ice
Fight with husband because we are both exhausted, overheated, and crabby
Put more gas in the generator
Try not to pass out from the fumes
Try to clean the disaster we made with everything we brought when we evacuated and just randomly threw around the house when we got home
Get overheated and sit in the bedroom with the AC and 12 screaming cats
Clean out the stinky fridge
Hook up the fridge because there is no more ice anywhere
Put more gas in the generator
Take the long-ass extension cord and bring it to the laundry building to wash clothes
That was just day 3 of no electricity.
Over 500 poles and power lines were down.
Every day was just spent trying to get food, water, and attempt to be comfortable.
And the phone internet was hit or miss....mostly miss.
Oh....day 5 ....a woman was found dead in a car right outside my place. Apparently the poor woman had dementia. She wandered off and just randomly sat in someone else's car. Died from the heat.
So, in conclusion, I thought I was ready for a Zombie apocalypse. I also thought that I preferred warmer climates.
I was wrong on both accounts.
And Hurricane Karen is an asshole.