If anyone had asked me if I could survive a 7 day power outage in St. Louis during a heat warning period, I would have told them no.

If anyone had told me I HAD to survive a 7 day power outage in St. Louis during a heat warning period, I would have told them in their dreams.

However...I would have been wrong.

Our power went off at 6:30 p.m. on July 19th, during a freak storm that was never predicted to even hit us. The storm originated in Iowa, built up speed, headed for Chicago, then turned left and headed south and slammed right into us. That's the way the KMOX radio people described it.

The storm had Cat 2 force winds, and spawned various hidden tornadoes. When it was over, almost half a million homes were without power from South County up to North County all the way into Illinois in the Granite City, Alton areas. the winds were up to 90 miles an hour at some points.

The good news? No trees fell on OUR home. The bad news, trees fell EVERYWHERE else. Ameren UE called in help and by very early Friday morning, July 21st, they had restored the power in about 100,000 homes.

Friday morning, another storm blew through, this one had been predicted, and it took out about 300,000 homes including the bulk of the homes that had been restored by Friday morning. At the peak of things, there were nearly 600,000 homes/businesses without power, which came to something like 2.8 million people.

Today, at 6:00 p.m., 1 half hour short of the 7 days (24 hours a day) mark, we got our power back. My parents still do not have power, nor do about 50,000 customers scattered all over the place, mainly in North County and Illinois.

But I'm here. I survived. I found ways to cope, built a new routine as a temporary crutch, and even managed to keep Sylvester, my parakeet alive, (which was a real challenge as no one at all that was close by or knew him had ANY power), by running battery fans on him 24 hours a day, taking him to the basement when it got so extreme that failed, and spritzing him with water on an off and on basis which he hated. But hey, he's alive, and he's back up here, and the AC is FINALLY back on.

I have seen things I couldn't believe, handled situations that I didn't think I would have been able to, and coped in more creative ways than I could write a book about, most likely. It's amazing what you find you can do when you have no other choices.

I know this doesn't sound all that bad, but trust me, there were some really bad situations for awhile there, and I haven't had a chance to check all the forums and see if there's any St. Louis stories about all this. I did notice that IWT was down, but I didn't garner when it went down or how long yet. I promise I'll read everything soon. And I'll be happy to post soon and tell you my tale of the St. Louis blackout if anyone is interested in some of the weird, wild, scary, and challenging things that occurred.

I just wanted to come in here and tell you all that I am ok, Sylvy is ok, my family is ok, even though some are still coping with heat warning temperatures. I tried to get my parents to come over here tonight but they wouldn't. They at least have a power cord running to a neighbor with power and are running their refrigerator and some fans.

Meanwhile, to my beloved IWT, I send support to anyone who needs it, I send sympathy to anyone in need of that (more on that in a minute), I send congratulations to anyone who earned that, and I send a huge thank you to being here for me when I finally got my power back up, and managed to get on line after 7 days.

A small sad note to close. We haven't had e-mail since Weds the 19th. We were so engrossed in coping and finding ways to get water, ice, food, and stay cool, that we didn't think to let John's parents know anything was bad until Sat the 22nd. We reached his dad, but failed to reach his mom. Her phone message box was full. Tonight, when we finally got online, John and I learned that her husband, (John's stepdad), had fallen terribly ill with kidney and liver problems on Weds the 19th. The e-mail had been sent at 9:50 p.m. 3 hours and 20 minutes (I think), after our power died. Then tonight, there was another message that Billy, his stepdad had died last night(Tues the 25th) at 7:30 p.m.

I feel awful that we weren't aware of this, but we did make three attempts to call his mom, even without being aware that he was sick. We made a fourth attempt tonight, but got no answer again, and the mailbox for the phone was full. John wrote her an e-mail, and I wish I knew what else we could maybe do, but we simply had no way of knowing. John never gets his personal mail at work, and his work was one of the ONLY places we were ever at with power.

So hopefully she'll understand, and I hope we hear from her soon. We asked if there was anything we could do, and we don't even know anything about a funeral or where to send flowers, or if. Just goes to show, even if life in St. Louis came to a grinding halt in many cases, life outside went on without us.

Brenda

They restored about 30,000 homes/businesses today in North St. Louis County where I and my parents live. It's really slow going, there are so many huge trees down and downed wires, and sometimes it's been a matter of putting houses back online 1 house at a time, due to individual connecting wires being down.

On a happier note, my mom and dad finally got power back at their house around 4:30 p.m. St. Louis time. I'm relieved, because I was really worried about them.

Things are starting to look up, but it's still rough here. Gas stations are still down in various places, and the refiner isn't up yet either. They said losing that refinery in Wood River will affect us with gas shortages for some time, so some people are in a panic about gas.

Ice is finally available in widespread quantities, and at least a good number of stores are back up as well. No more finding your way through a darkened Schnucks Store running on generator and trying to hunt for things in the dark. There is a considerable lack of perishables at some of those stores, however. The various boil orders which had been in place due to damage at the water plants have all been cancelled as well. That one I only had to suffer through for about a day.

Many fast food places are finally opening in our area again. They started opening during the weekend. And most Walgreens are finally able to get prescriptions done again. I was lucky and got one done this past weekend.

The hospital is back on line in our area, it was evacuated two times, I believe.
Generators are back in stock again as well, that was something you couldn't find anywhere here last week.

Batteries are a little tougher to find. Double AA's, (which I kept my bird alive with by running three battery fans 24-7 on him), are available most everywhere. D's and C's are only available here and there, and you have to hunt for them. Most stores are sold out of flashlights, and any other portable non-electric lights, but the True Value Hardware near us called in every available supply this past weekend and I've been able to procure most of our needs there for me and mom and dad.

Banks are back online, most businesses in the outlying areas are back up, as long as you stay out of the Northernmost part of St. Louis County. Most of Jennings, Dellwood and Ferguson are still pretty hammered and not functional. There are still so many trees down on the roads and lines down live and dead, it's unbelievable. It's a hazard to even drive through there, and I can't hardly believe I managed it more than once.

The majority of the traffic lights are working, but there are still many that are not. Busch Stadium was hit pretty hard, and I haven't had an update on it yet. So was Lambert Airport, a T-1 hangar flipped upside down and a jet too, as well as part of the roof from the airport blew off and crashed onto Highway 70.

The bridges are finally open for the most part again. The 370 bridge had been closed because there were 2 overturned RVs there during the first storm. The 270 bridge had been closed because there were 3 overturned rigs on that bridge during the first storm, one was even hanging off the bridge. The 70 bridge was open but there was damage in a couple lanes due to debris from the airport, and the Eads bridge was damaged and closed when bricks from the Switzer building blew off onto it and wreaked a lot of havoc.

Food pantries are stretched to the limit, there are so many people who either can't replace their food (due to not finding it or no money), and others who have no where to store it if they did, because they still have no power. The National Guard is still assisting in large tree removal, and house to house assistance of food, evacuating people to cooling centers, etc. Metrolink was damaged fairly badly but finally came back up this past weekend, I believe.

The temperatures are expected to peak again this coming weekend, and heat warnings are again likely to be issued. There are still 20,000 people without power tonight, and the estimate is that they could remain without power all weekend.

I just ask you all to pray for everyone here, in St. Louis county, city, the outlying areas, and the Illinois counties that were hit as well. This may seem like it hasn't been much in the news, even though we made the number 2 headline on CNN for a couple days, but trust me, this has been very bad. A number of people have already died from either heat related deaths, injuries, or even just accidents like generators exploding. And we lost one Ameren UE worker yesterday who was searching for a downed wire in the brush behind an area, and found it the hard way. :(

Another Ameren UE contractor was seriously burned and rendered unconscious at the top of a pole in Ladue. He is in the hospital and I don't know his status at this time.

Al Sharpton came and bitched at everyone that the minorities were not being treated fairly because more upper class people had been restored when they had not. That is bull. I can tell you first hand that Town & country, Ladue, and some of the richest neighborhoods have homes & businesses that are STILL without power. The reason some of the minorities are the last to be repaired, is because there are a lot of minorities in the North St. Louis County area, and it was hit the hardest.

Trust me, I've seen North St. Louis County. It looks like Paul Bunyan tromped through it, swinging his axe at every other tree or house, and then let his Ox trample whatever was left.

Not trying to complain, just give as accurate an update about the situation as I can, and praying this horrendous situation ends for everyone soon, and that everyone will be allright in the end.

Brenda