Just One Among a Half Million

According to the latest count, there are approximately 476,000 of us still without power in St. Louis. Have no idea what I'm talking about here? Check out the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Last night, I rode out a mother of a storm with Soozi and RambeL. Yes, quite literally rode it out as we were driving through a lot of it. These are things I had never seen in person before last night:

Traffic signs spinning in the ground. You know how, during hurricane coverages, they usually show a road sign of some sort flipping around because of the wind? Yeah, I had never seen that in person before.

Billboards ripped out of brick buildings.

Lightning that travels horizontally instead of vertically.

Lightning that travels up towards the sky.

Also, I've never been only 15 feet away from a sphere of lightning before. That's scary.

After waiting out scary parts of the storm at RambeL's, Soozi dropped me off at my apartment. I made a few phone calls, read a bit, and then remembered my bottle of moscato d'asti in the fridge. Not wanting it to go to waste, I drank a good portion of it and then went to bed. Sleep was quick in coming, but I kept waking up because of the heat (yeah, the storm cooled things down some, but still, humid air is quite unpleasant).

The neighborhood is a huge mess, but it could be a lot worse. Fortunately, we only have a few big branches down in the backyard. And, luckily, we don't have a land line, because our phone would be out for sure. I just hope our cable connection is secure. Not that it matters now, what with no power and all.

I'm really worried about the power. According to the Post-Dispatch, whenever power outages have affected around 250,000, it has taken 4-5 days to get it back on to everyone. WTF??? How long will it take with double the number?

Well, there are my storm complaints. Once I have time and electricity, I will write my big Gay Games post.

If you're in St. Louis, take care. If you're not in St. Louis...well, enjoy your electricity.

Afternoon Update

I went home at noon to check on Keetah, and we still don't have power. Not that I thought we would, but I was hoping really hard. I also went home to close the window by our computer, in case the forecast of thunderstorms and hail proves true.

On the way home, I drove by things that we saw last night. Nothing has been cleared or picked up yet. The brick building with the uprooted billboard now has a yellow police line around the fallen bricks, but that's all that's been done.

I don't want to say that this is worse than the tornado in Iowa City, but the damage is definitely much more widespread, and a heck of a lot more people are affected. And it's summer! We need our air conditioning here!

***Edit***
After reading more stories and seeing more pictures on the Post-Dispatch's website, I will now say it: This is much, much worse than the tornado in Iowa City! At least people weren't electrocuted from downed power lines in IC!