A Disaster
Governor Easley has declared a state of emergency in North Carolina. More than one million people are still without power--over 250,000 in Charlotte alone, and over 80,000 here in G'boro: "Duke Power is calling it the worst storm in its 100-year history, worse than a 1996 ice storm that eclipsed power for 660,000 people, worse than Hurricane Hugo that had 696,000 power outages 13 years ago at a cost of $69 million."
We had Elijah's friend Drew and his parents sleep over last night--their neighborhood might be without electricity for days. Our power went out from 7 this morning til about 1O, but we are among the lucky. My office has juice, too, so I'm on a pretty normal schedule.
The roads were OK as I drove downtown, but the damage to trees is enormous. Limbs and entire trunks are down everywhere. It's a landscape of icicles and splinters. To get up N. Eugene Street you have to drive under a tunnel of snapped power lines that are trapped in tree limbs and have been secured to plastic garbage cans across the road. Fortunately it is supposed to warm up quickly--fifty degree days being more common here in early December than winter storms.
11:37:15 AM 
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