The winds during Friday's nor'easter-plus-snow may have been the strongest I've ever experienced. Driving on Route 1 was just scary, with the wind jostling my car around. We lost power twice that afternoon, and as I'm writing this on Sunday some folks are still without electricity. (The Kennett and Jennersville YMCAs offered hot showers, coffee and charging stations for electronics to members and nonmembers alike.)
An easily annoyed friend who is a recent transplant to Chadds Ford from Manhattan was sputtering with outrage at the idea that a power outage had the nerve to inconvenience him.
"What is up with this?" he demanded, only half-kidding.
I suggested he think about installing a generator and he gave me a look of disbelief; it hadn't occurred to him that this was a situation that might not be just a once-off.
Social media is problematic in many ways, but it's very useful in storms. People post photos of downed wires and tree limbs (like the two that closed Route 842 just west of Upland corner) and report roads that are impassable.
At one point I was "blocked in" in all directions by downed limbs, but thanks to the efforts of our hard-working local road crews, I managed to get out on Friday evening. My attempts to shut my old-fashioned garage doors would have made a comical video. Just as I'd get one side in place, using a great deal of force against the wind, a gust would catch the other door and it would swing out of reach. And when I'd heave that one back into place, the first one would swing open again.
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