Where There's Smoke

When I came home from work this morning the firetruck had just arrived at the corner down the street to block off the road. There was no sign of an accident but the pole on the corner was leaning and the cable wires were drooping very low but I was able to get through. My camera isn't the best for things that are far away but you can tell that we live a little way from the corner.



After I got home and changed John and I walked out to the road to see if we could tell what was going on. Our cable was out but we still had power. When we got close to the road we could smell smoke and as we walked around the pole in our yard we realized that it was the neighbors yard that was burning. The power line between the pole in our yard and the one in theirs was down and still live. (If you click on either photo you can see the fire better.)



It seems that a tractor trailer, delivering to the business around the corner, caught the cable wire and brought down the pole on the side road. That in turn brought down or damaged at least three other poles, the one on the corner, another one on the side road and one across our road. The tension traveled down the line to our neighbors and brought down the wire there.

Trucks from the phone, cable and power companies all drove right by us as we stood at the side of the road pointing at the wire. As we debated whether or not to walk down and make sure they knew about it the power company truck turned around and came back. The guy got out of the truck and told us that it would be a little while before they cut the power. We walked home and worked outside for awhile.

They cut the power and after a long time passed crews started showing up. We were without power for at least four hours on the hottest day that we have had so far this year. Keep in mind that we live in the country so not only could we not use the fans and airconditioner, without power we have no way to pump water out of our well. Not knowing how long we would be out we didn't want to open the fridge very often.

Even after the power came back on the crews still had the road blocked off. John and I were allowed through from the other direction but the State DOT guy refused to let our daughter-in-law through to drop off the boys. John ended up going over there to babysit. Our road finally reopened just after 5:00 but the side road was still closed, and it's a long way around. The crews are just leaving now.

I would really like the opportunity to kick that trucker in the butt!