What's Your "War Story" Now That the Storm is Over?

Here we are facing yet another catastrophic event in the history of the Lehigh Valley. If it’s not earthquakes and hurricanes, it’s an unprecedented October snowfall cutting power to approximately 300,000 customers throughout the region for days.

The snow began to fall Saturday morning and continued through the night. As I watched it accumulating on our newly planted trees, I became distressed.

For two years we’ve nurtured those maples, cherries, oaks, sweet gums, blueberry and lilac bushes, and one silly storm wasn’t going to take them from me. My kids and husband thought I was losing my mind as I rushed out every couple of hours to "shake the trees." They laughed and teased me, but in the end they called me the “Tree Savior.” I’m happy to say we lost not one tree.

As I ventured outside on Saturday, snapping and cracking could be heard throughout the woods around our house with bigger explosions echoing from the top of South Mountain. Trees were breaking everywhere! All those years of growth, only for a freak storm to roll in and decimate the area.

By noon, word of power outages was spreading quickly on Facebook. My husband and I were fortunate to have lights, water and heat. We knew it was too good to be true.

By 8 p.m. there was a series of explosions and bright lights from town with the final "POP!" doing the trick to take us off the grid so we, too, could join the “Powerless People.”

We’ve all moaned and griped about how long it’s taking to get power back, how cold it is, how we’d love a hot shower, and how much food we’ve had to toss from our refrigerators.

Outside of all that, I’ve learned a few lessons from this historic storm.

• I now understand "fall." This is Mother Nature’s way of pruning. It’s a good thing fall comes before winter and the branches are stripped of their leaves. I never considered how a few flimsy pieces of plant material could have the power take down a massive tree. Thankfully, we don’t have October storms like this very often.

• There's beauty in distress. The sound of a generator can be heavenly. So can the smell of a wood fire. The sight of bold colored leaves resting against freshly fallen snow is more perfect than a painting. I couldn’t get enough of the golden-pink maple leaves scattered on the ground (as I desparately shook my trees back to life).

• No power = forced family time. Watching smoke drifting from homes and imagining families snuggling close together, perhaps playing games of UNO and drinking cocoa, made me feel an appreciation for what really matters. It’s times like these that make us realize the importance of family and friends.

• Trials bring out people's true colors. As with any challenge in life, we can either make the most of the situation or we can become miserable. It was very interesting to watch the way people handled this storm. I saw anger come out toward PPL for their "lack of response time," but I also saw people defending PPL for their efforts and commitment to getting everyone back on the grid. As easy as it was to blame PPL, I also couldn't imagine the difficulties they faced to resolve the situation in a timely manner. Kudos to them for doing what they could as quickly as they could. Who are we to judge?

• A smile can make all the difference. As I rushed around Trexlertown hoping to find an open gas pump and something for the kids to eat, I came face-to-face with the friendliest McDonald’s employee I’ve ever met. She opened the window at the drive-thru and flashed a pearly white smile. In all the hustle and bustle of the weekend, her kindness and positivity changed my perspective on the entire situation. I left feeling refreshed and light-hearted.

• Facebook is a valid resource. What did our forefathers ever do without the Facebook app to keep them informed of who had power and who didn’t? Seriously!