scary night

Our Wednesday night kind of sucked. Lightning struck and caused some unwanted excitement in our neighborhood. Everything ended up okay with no one hurt, but it was scary.

We've had so many people tell us in the few days since that they heard all of the sirens, or were diverted off of Lockwood, or saw all of the lights in front of our house, or were without power because of what happened. Being the cause of excitement in Webster Groves is not fun. Nor is seeing ten emergency vehicles parked in front of your home or being the house that strangers on walks are stopping to look at.

Because it's easier, here's a recap of our night copied from what I shared on Facebook the next morning. (I debated sharing it that morning because I didn't want to seem like I was craving attention for what happened, but we had so many people texting to check on us and we were without power so I was trying to conserve my phone battery. A Facebook update seemed an easy and quick way to update all and answer the many questions.)

After a scary evening and restless night, I’m starting my day with gratitude for the way last night unfolded. As we were getting ready to eat dinner, lightning struck and a series of at least a twenty spread- out explosions occurred near our garage. A live electrical wire was down and laying across our Expedition in the driveway. The explosions kept occurring off and on for around 30 minutes.

We called for help and the WG Fire Dept. showed up. And then Glendale. Then Kirkwood. Then Crestwood. For about 30 minutes, we had 10 different emergency vehicles parked in front of our home and the neighbors’ home. Firemen walked through our house with sensors to determine that everything was safe inside and did the same thing in the homes of the neighbors on both sides. We were warned to stay on our front porch as they worked to figure out the best way to deal with the situation. The WG fire department stayed on scene for ninety minutes.

The night wrapped up a couple of hours later with Ameren showing up to make sure the down wire was off. The man pulled the wire off the vehicle and allowed us to pull to the end of the driveway.

There are so many things to feel gratitude about.

I am thankful that everyone was safe. I am thankful for the quick response of emergency services. I’m thankful that our dogs were not outside when this happened. I am thankful for neighbors who checked on us and especially the neighbors who took my kids to their house for cookies and playtime. I am thankful that we had just pulled Papa’s camper from the exact spot of the explosions in order to get it cleaned up for an upcoming camping trip. It would have been destroyed if not. I am thankful for the many friends who checked on us and the genuine offers of help in anyway that we could use it. I am thankful to the workers who were outside in the neighborhood throughout the night working on the situation and for the additional workers showing up first thing this morning to try to get our power back on. I am thankful that all of this excitement happened on a night when Ben was not traveling for work.

We ended up being without power for about twenty hours but thankfully it was not too terribly hot outside. Unfortunately, the incident caused some fears around here and bedtime the next two nights was kind of challenging for the littlest Hedenbergs.