One of my favorite childhood memories is from a freak snowstorm that happened in the middle of October 2008.
It was a normal autumn day that ended with a blizzard.
We went to sleep and got our stuff ready for school the next day. We woke up to several feet of snow and school was cancelled! We couldn’t believe our eyes. What we didn’t realize was that this storm would last a full week and keep everyone out of school and work for that entire time. The winds from the storm were so powerful that they knocked trees over, which then knocked down power lines. Almost all of my extended family lost power and lost heat. Luckily, my house didn’t lose anything, so my entire family came to spend the week with us. It was like one giant sleepover. Thinking back, though, it was so dangerous that many people were without heat. I remember the worried faces of my aunts and uncles while they tried to get in touch with their HVAC representatives. Nearly the entire city lost heat, so all of the HVAC companies were overflowed with calls from worried customers. I knew, even as a child, that I should be thankful that we had heat and we were safe. About one week later, most of my aunts and uncles were able to get in touch with heating specialists and finally turned the heat on in their homes. I was sad to see all of my cousins go back home because we had so much fun together during the snowstorm, but I was glad to see that everyone was safe in their own homes. I think it’s easy to forget how important heat is for our safety until we are without it.