How Virginia Handled A Statewide Emergency, Part 3

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Monday.
When I woke up I was immediately overwhelmed with anxiety again. Just like Sunday morning. We called the power company and they said they were working on it. No other shelters were opened yet either. Our neighbors said there was still no power. We would have to pay out the ass for the room again. I knew we had to, but worries over our finances started to intrude into my thoughts. The kids finally got up. They had slept for a long time. They were more alert which was a good sign.

One of my oldest daughter's friends offered to bring some water for our chickens. They said they would bring it later in the day. We paid for the room again. Then a few of us headed back to the house to let the chickens out. We had to go out to let them out in the morning, feed them and refill their water containers. Then we had to go back in the evening to put them in, close their door, and refill their water. It had gotten to the point that we had to go to our neighbor's house across the street and carry buckets of water from their pond to give to our chickens. Not ideal but we had no other options by now. Bottled water was getting scarce. When we got to 340, we got held up by VDOT. Do you think they were helping to clear fallen trees or any other recovery work? Hell no! They were repaving the damn road! They were holding up people to repave a road which didn't need it! During a State emergency! When we got to the work near our home, sure enough, they were out there working on that too. Can you believe that?

The house was up to 100 degrees inside again. We hurried to get our stuff done. We were dripping with sweat almost immediately. Disgusting!

On the way back to town, we got held up by VDOT's road paving again. We sat there for over 20 minutes waiting. But guess what we witnessed. An ambulance with it's sirens blaring was trying to get by but VDOT held them up for 15 minutes before finally letting them through. They were probably on their way to a heat distressed victim because no one had power where they were heading. Can you believe that? Isn't VDOT's behavior deplorable? Of course, I added that to my list of complaints. I felt bad for the people waiting for that ambulance.

When we got back to the room, we called around and there was still no help for people. I dreaded having to spend more money on the room, but I knew we would if we had to. When we went back to take care of the chickens later in the evening, we saw that my daughter's friend had brought water and used some of it to refill water containers. Wasn't that really nice of them? The only people to help us was a mexican family from another county. My own parents did nothing, even though their power had been restored Saturday afternoon. The power was finally back on in the house. We turned on the AC and checked  out things around the house. We had already paid for the room so we stayed there another night.

Tuesday.
When we got back home, we were greeted by the smell of rotted food.  We had a lot of cleaning to do. But it felt good to be home. We cleaned out the fridge and freezer well. That's when we saw that the plastic and glass shelves had cracked. They weren't like that before. We can't buy new shelves or a new fridge so it will have to stay like that for now. We threw away several hundred dollars worth of food. I really don't know what to do with our canned foods. Canned foods are supposed to be kept in a cool, dry place. Our home was anything but cool and dry. But what is the threshold at when canned foods can become damaged by heat and humidity? We looked online and could find nothing. So we called the CDC. They had no answer to that question. They transferred us to the FDA and they didn't have an answer either. The FDA gave us a number for the major manufacturer of cans in the US. They didn't answer the phone and didn't return our call. So I have no idea. You would think that some scientist would have done a study since it could affect human health. But no, nothing.

Today.
We had some minor damage to our roof and we lost one of our trees. We lost several hundred dollars of food and antibiotics. We were all sick from the heat. But we made it. Our chickens made it. So we are grateful for that.

I looked up Governor McDonnell's website and on his site it states that VDOT is out helping to keep the roads clear and open. I didn't see that here. I saw the opposite. I saw them holding up people and ambulances on the road. I saw them doing road paving and bridge work instead of helping during this emergency. Yesterday there was still almost 71,000 people in Virginia without power. There were only 9 cooling shelters open and only 6,000 meals provided. So 9 shelters and 6,000 meals for almost 71,000 people. Now that is what I call help (I'm being sarcastic). We didn't even get that here. Yet the Governor of West Virginia was sending out 40 trucks of water and 22 trucks of food DAILY to those without power. The West Virginia Governor also decided to give out replacement EBT credit to those recipients who lost power. Indiana is doing the same. I don't see Governor McDonnell doing that for Virginians. I haven't seen him do anything during this mess. I am just disgusted with the county and the state.

So if you don't want to be stranded without help during an emergency, don't move to Virginia. You won't get any help from this government or even your neighbors. Virginians aren't known for being helpful.

I also forgot to mention that the churches, who did get power back before many residents, did not offer to help in any way. They could have opened the churches as places for people to go at the very least. But they did nothing. Not very christian if you ask me.