Wild wind

My town has very low wind velocity, on average. Typically we see 1 mph to 5 mph. Yesterday we had a storm that hit just the right direction for the valley and 50 mph winds swept through.

This knocked down trees and took out the power in large sections of Douglas County. Luckily no one deaths have been reported.

The power went out at work for about 20 minutes. As with most businesses we have procedures that need to be followed and management around here never sits on its hands. So all the emergency exits where manned, the front doors closed and apologies issued to our members as they arrived. It just is not safe to wander about a warehouse in the dark, ya know...

Then everyone else heads to the front to man the registers while our backup power is working. There is an estimated 30 minutes before we totally loose power, so it is a three way race.

Clear the Membership .vs. Lose auxiliary power .vs. Power being restored.

At the time I was printing out some pictures for our front board (that shows some of our latest stuff). The office is on the generator so I did not even notice the power going out (other then a brief flicker). When I did notice some commotion, I assumed they were preparing for a blackout by finishing off projects and logging out of the various terminals. Until one of the managers, Liz, said we should go guard doors. Walking outside the office. The reality hit. Chagrined for not piecing it together I hit the registers and began loading people's carts up.

We got the 200 something people through the check out in about 20 minutes. The power came up shortly after that. The managers verified everything was safe and functional and we opened back up for business.

Very exciting and fun day at work. I am thinking the generators are going to sell out today...