In the Dark

Here in Georgia we have been experiencing some weird weather. Honestly I think the bad weather started Good Friday (night) and has just continued to be crazy. The tornado alarm went off in Smyrna 5 different times throughout the night last Friday. Then it was just rain and really dark clouds. Then Monday morning MAJOR thunderstorms very early, and then just pouring rain. It was pitch black as I drove to school.

We got the day off to a pretty normal start. My kids were a bit crazy mostly because some of them went on the fifth grade French Trip. The wind really started whipping up about 8:30. One side of my classroom has four big windows that face a small wooded area. The trees are super old, and very tall. The wind just continued to pick up, and the trees seemed as if they might just smash through my windows. We were in the middle of our Social Studies lesson, about 9:15 am, when the lights just went out. Without any sunlight, our room was just pitch black.

Now losing power has happened before. Before we just went on teaching. The lightest part of my room was by the windows. I moved a few of my students to the farthest part of the room that had light in it, just because I was so afraid the wind would chuck a tree through the window. I kept teaching, and kept waiting for the lights to come on. Around lunch time I finally got to talk to some other teachers, and we were told that the wind had gotten up to 65 mph and pretty much all of Buckhead (north Atlanta) was out of power. The trees had completely knocked out power.

As the day wore on, the clouds lessened and we were able to do some classwork from the drops of sunlight that the trees were letting in. We made it through the day and of course as soon as 3:00 rolled around I was out of there. No computer, no phones, no light, I was not being productive so I just headed home. Getting home was a mess. Roads closed, trees blocking lanes, and downed power lines made my normal 20 minute commute, to almost an hour.

Then last night we had another round of thunderstorms. The wind was still blowing this morning. I had thought that the roads would have been restored, but boy was I wrong. The damage from these storms is massive in Buckhead. Roads still closed this morning. As I pulled up to the school I knew it was not going to be good news. Teachers were all gathered in the front by the emergency lights. We still had no electricity.....and the worst news they are saying we might have power back by the earliest tomorrow. I have been teaching in the dark for 2 days, and now it might be even longer.

The kids have been pretty good, but it is rough. We are using flashlights in the halls, and bathrooms. I have to write on the board then step back and hold the flashlight up to it. There have been a few classrooms that are running on the schools generator. Because of this all of the rooms without light have been on rotation and are mobile classrooms. I had my kids pack up two subjects worth of materials and parked them down in the cafeteria where four other classes were also relocated.

According to the weatherman he says the crazy weather should be over for now. Which does mean that Georgia Power can begin working on fixing the damage. I will go to school tomorrow assuming we will be in the dark at least one more day....