The Winds of March

A powerful low pressure system brought howling, damaging winds to Michigan yesterday…especially southwestern Michigan. The G.R. Ford International Airport registered a gust of 64 mph! This morning, close to 200,000 electric customers are still without power across the state and may not see it restored for another three days.

Here at my home, we lost power for about six hours. It first went down around 11:30 in the morning, came back after an hour or so—to tease us—only to go off again for five hours or so. It came back on around 7:30, shortly after darkness had fallen.

Even though they weren’t needed for long, fortunately, it gave me a chance to get flashlights together and tested, put a couple small candles in place, and to get my two Dietz Little Wizard No. 1 oil lanterns up and running.

I love these lanterns. I had not used them in a couple years, but I enjoyed them often during dark November nights at Deer Camp. Of course, I also look forward to using them when camping this summer.

When my phone’s charge dragged low during the afternoon, I also used my Limefuel LP200X external battery to recharge it. The pocket-size unit is about 6″x 3″ and is perfect for small electronics capable of being charged via USB cable.

All in all, we were extremely fortunate during a wickedly strong wind event. Lots of folks lost trees and had serious roof and other damage to their homes. I won’t complain a bit…it could have been much worse for us.