My room in Lewisburg was located on the ground floor courtyard. After dinner I fell into bed. I was awakened from a sound sleep by, what sounded like, someone throwing fists full of gravel at the base of my door.
Confusion danced in my brain as I came up through layers of consciousness, at last realizing there was a fierce storm outside. Screaming wind hurled small stones across the courtyard floor, stopped by my door.
I peeked out from the curtain over the lone window in my room. Beyond the courtyard, by dim streetlight, I could see the shadows of debris skittering down the street.
I willed myself back to sleep.
When the alarm went off, there was no sound of a storm.
As I packed up after my shower, the electricity went out. How fortunate that I had already packed everything up from the bathroom at the back of the room!
I lifted the window shade to let in north-facing light and finished packing my things. The sky was grey and cloudy.
As I was taking my bag to my car, I met and chatted briefly with a hotel worker standing at one side of the courtyard.
“That was some howling wind, last night,” I started. “Any idea what caused the electricity to go out?”
“Oh, yeah. A transformer blew. Knocked out electricity across the whole downtown. The schools are on a two-hour delay.”
I looked past her to see a long queue of cars on Main Street, due to the lack of working traffic lights.
“What’s the best way out of town to avoid this traffic jam?”
“Where’re you headed?”
“West on I-80.”
She gave me the directions and within a few minutes I was on my way, westbound for Ohio. Some of the images from that drive are here.
Header image: Ohio farm
Mary Ann Stewart 