The next couple of days we just tried to get back to normal. The electricity was off but we stocked up as well as possible and were able to eat just fine. We have an all electric house so no oven, but we cooked on the grill. It was fine.
Here was our refrigerator
We got back to the house Monday. Neither of us worked so we just unpacked and started getting things back to normal. Monday night was fine. It was somewhat cool from the storm and the breeze was still blowing.
Tuesday was OK as well. It was a bit warmer Tuesday night but tolerable.
But, Wednesday. Oh, Wednesday. It was almost dark and we were sitting on the couch and the lights came on, then went back off. We were sure that it wouldn't be long. We sat for a while longer and for some reason I decided to venture outside. The condo units across from us had lights. I drove around the complex and about 80% of the units had power. We were in the 20%. Earlier I had gone out trying to find ice with no success. Staged near us was about 30 utility trucks. My assumption was that the trucks had turned on the power and assumed the entire complex was on, then left. I found out later my assumption was correct. I drove over hoping they would still be in the parking lot, but they had left the area.
By this time, several other neighbors had gathered to figure out what to do about this. Duke energy has a pretty decent reporting system. In the past you could report outages via text and you would get periodic text updates. However, because of the volume of outages, not only did people not have power, but their reporting system crashed. So, there was now no way to alert them we didn't have power or see any sort of updates. Ugh.
But, back to Wednesday. Wednesday night was hot. ****ing hot. Neither of us slept at all.
I had already emptied the refrigerator and freezer, but I have a bait freezer that I was hoping would at least keep things cool for a while. It did, but it wasn't going to make it another day without stinking up everything. I emptied about 20 bags of various baits and chum that had semi-melted. Peeuuuwwww......
About noon the condo association let us know that they had somehow reached a real person at Duke and they were sending a truck out. GF had to work and by chance when she was leaving she saw some trucks parked outside the gate. She stopped to thank the guys and while she was talking to one of them, another one of the trucks started to leave. She mentioned to the guy that we still didn't have power. He had no idea. They were about to leave AGAIN without getting us power. We felt kinda lucky on this one. I have no idea how long it would have been if she hadn't caught them. The trucks spent a long time in the complex after that. Apparently a switch had gone bad but they had no clue where the switch was. It ended up being outside the complex somewhere.
Anyway, power came on about 4:00 Thursday. OMG, that AC felt soooooooo good.