On last Wednesday night my roomie Purvin and I were having a usual chat, and he mentioned that it’s going to snow tomorrow. My first reaction was: I didn’t believe him, but then thought okay, so what, it would be the first snow of the season and would be very insignificant, no big deal. But none of us had expected what’s going to happen tomorrow and for that matter virtually the entire city of Buffalo and its administration.
Anyways, so next morning, I woke up, and went to the Canadian Consulate in downtown Buffalo, to get my visitor visa there as I had planned. Not to mention, Thursday morning was very chilly and to my surprise I was taken aback, and was caught unprepared for the challenging weather. I was just wearing a t-shirt, but still managed anyhow though. So after finishing my work with the Consulate around noon time, I called up Purvin to meet me at my car dealer Ray Laks and then drop me at my work place, since I wanted to get some issues in my car get fixed before I leave for the US Embassy next week, 350 miles away in Ottawa, Canada.
After dropping the car, we had lunch at Pizza Hut, and he dropped me at my work place. It’s around 1 pm now and it has been raining since Wednesday morning. So, I got back to work and cursing the rain as usual, and around 1.30 it started snowing. It really wasn’t actual real snow, rather you can say rain water which got frozen on its way down – meaning wet snow (Well, technically that means snow, but let’s not argue… ;)). Anyways, so this was something similar to what Purvin had mentioned the night before. Nothing surprising except that it was too early for the snow season. It looked liked the typical first snow, but as the day progressed it turned into real snow and every thing got covered with white carpet. My work place has big glass windows and there is a small lake in the back of it. All of my colleagues including me enjoyed the snowfall for the rest of the day, it was really spectacular.
Once again nobody knew what it is like being outside the building or the gravity of the situation. At about 6.45 Purvin and I left for Ray Laks again, to pick up a loaner car since they needed my car overnight due to non-availability of some parts. Anyways, so we left and the something was different on the roads, it wasn’t a usual sight. I mean, the traffic lights were off, everything was black and there was a chaos on the cross-roads. Suddenly it struck to me, it’s ‘Black-Out’. Wow, that was unbelievable and not expected. Meaning, you don’t see black outs everyday or for that matter everywhere. That was something ‘rare’. So, we were driving and we saw traffic-jams everywhere and most places were dark. However, it wasn’t complete black out, some areas did have electricity. All the while, I was too excited about something else; I was going to get a loaner car, some great Acura model.
Anyways, so we reached there, they were also ready to close. I did my paper work, and she handed over the key to me. And it was 2005 Acura TSX. Man, that was something. I couldn’t wait to drive, I headed towards the car, and what I see is a foot of snow is covering the car from everywhere. I made some efforts to remove the snow with my hand, but all in vain. Don’t forget that I wasn’t wearing any warm clothes, but just a t-shirt, and it was freezing outside. I immediately went inside and asked for help from one of the mechanics there, he found something to wipe water off-the floor. So, he removed the snow, I thanked, and I was off now. Finally I got into the car, first took a detailed look at all the features and finally zoooom. But weather wasn’t supportive at all, so couldn’t do much.
I headed back to my work place exploring more power outages and traffic-jams. It was about 7.45 now and I was back in my office. I declared there, that it’s bad outside, and most places are dark. Anyways, so I finished my task for the day, and had a discussion with my superior about it and we planned the action plan for Friday, and for the next couple of weeks. At about 8.30 we left from the office.
Meanwhile I had offered one of the colleagues to drop him to his home, because he takes the bus. And today wasn’t the time to step out, because I had seen how bad it is like being outside. So we were driving at a speed of about 10-15mph, and it was even worse now and snowing real heavily. While I was driving, I got a call from Purvin. He had some ‘good news’, we also didn’t have electricity at our home, so he wanted me to buy some lighter/match-sticks to light up candles. Well, that was the last thing I wanted to hear for that day. But then we were not alone.
So I dropped my colleague, and finally I was heading towards home. Saw some more calamities, hundreds of trees fallen and still snowing. I bought a lighter from a gas-station and finally entered into Chestnut Ridge Court, that’s where we stay. But more was yet to come, there was no place to park the car. In fact, I couldn’t even enter into the complex, my car got stuck, so I had to back up and take another entrance. There too I got stuck, but this time I tried real hard and got ahead. But now, the wipers stopped working due to heavy deposition of snow on the glass. So, I got out of the car and removed some snow with naked hands. Everything in Chestnut Ridge was a complete mess, cars here and there, trees obstructing the ‘drive-ways’. Somehow, managed a parking spot at the end, which was quite far from my apartment. But who cares, I just parked and got out.
I was now running in the snow and freezing, and worrying about my leather-shoes. Everything was so white and dark. Contrasting ? But true. Everything looked so similar and didn’t know where my apartment is, took a while to find apartment O-4. I hopped up the stairs, and Purvin was already there with the door open. I don’t know how he knew, or it was just a coincidence.
So it was 10.00 pm now, and I was inside the home, completely dark. We exchanged our experiences for the day. We discussed about the creaking noises of the falling trees outside, and the cars parked below them.
My day not finished yet, suddenly realized I don’t even know how I parked my car. I mean I didn’t want it to have under any tree. So got a jacket and ran again towards the car and made sure everything is alright and came back.
It was time to eat something now. I hadn’t had anything since the lunch at Pizza Hut at 12.30. So ate the sub that I got from my work, while watching the snow and damage outside. It was the first dinner in complete darkness, except some light from a small candle, in America. Right, that was a true ‘candle light dinner’ with myself..!
Now everything was over. We discussed and realized that how helpless are we without electricity; life comes to a total standstill. You just can’t do anything. Anyways, since there was nothing that we could do, we were forced to sleep, well what else could you do in the dark ?
Our cell phones were almost dead, so couldn’t talk with anybody of the outside world. Anyways so I was sleeping/rather lying in the bed in a moderately cold house, since there was no heat for that night. But, it wasn’t too bad.
In all it was an eventful Thursday, October 12, 2006. And the worse was yet to follow…
Kaushal
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