Lucky

As we made our way over to the Falls Church Cafe Rio for our favorite Cafe Rio/Target run, we were curious about why almost every streetlight was out, but continued on our way without giving it much thought. As we drove up to the restaurant to park we noticed the lot was completely empty and a handwritten sign was taped to the window saying "Sorry for any inconvenience but we are closed due to electrical problems" and then we really started to notice it...


Almost every surrounding parking lot and shopping center was deserted...very unusual for a Saturday afternoon.  Everyone except Target, who we learned upon entering was running on a backup generator, only had a few registers open and most of the lights we out.  It was really weird to shop in  in the dark, a very zombie-apocalypse-feel to everything.  I couldn't even get cell service to find out what on earth had happened since the most we had noticed last night was that it rained and there was a little thunder and lightening for a few minutes.  It makes sense now why Pinterest, Instagram and Netflix weren't working last night.

Apparently, we were just really lucky.  According to CNN, at least 11 people were killed, 3 states have declared emergencies and millions of people are without power right now  because of the storm.  Which is especially awful considering it's about 100 degrees outside right now.  The craziest part is that is seemed to effect everyone directly surrounding us.  Slightly affirming my suspicions that we must be on the same grid as the White House, (we never lost power with hurricane Irene either).  My heart goes out to all those without power right now, and I can only hope they can find a neighborhood pool to cool off, not to mention all the people in Utah and Colorado battling the crazy wildfires.