Deja vu

The snow started falling in earnest on Saturday. Steve and I were near Hampshire Mall, and it began accumulating as we were waiting for the bus. By the time we got back home, both of us were drenched (Chucks really aren't winter shoes), so we changed and went to Cutter to talk our favorite Californian out of her weather-induced panic attack. I was getting sort of worried at that point: Buffalo's October storm in 2008 started out almost exactly like this. The trees were groaning under the weight of the snow on their leaves, and I think I knew that it wasn't going to end well.

We all went to Lamont for dinner, and around 6 o'clock, the power went out. I wasn't too worried at that point. I went back to Baldwin, where everyone was huddled around the fire, making s'mores and talking quietly. It was cozy, not scary at all.

The next morning, the weather was so warm that I was confident that the snow would melt and everything would be totally fine. Baldwin had a few power strips going, and everyone was drinking tea, eating ramen, and trying to get their work done. But when dinnertime rolled around and there were only two dining halls open, things started to deteriorate. Steve made off with an entire bag of rice cakes, and everyone was trying to take as much food as possible, just in case. Then night fell, and it began to get colder. Our heat turned off, and we were all expecting the generator to go off any minute. By this time, a lot of people who lived close by had gone home to their parents', friends', or relatives' homes: anywhere they could find heat. Hampshire and Amherst had been evacuated, UMass didn't have power, and people were starting to worry that we were facing evacuation, too. Two houses up the road came to us because they lost heat and power, and their fire alarm had started going off, too. It was intense.

We had been told that the power would probably be back by Monday night or Tuesday morning, so when it came back on this morning, everyone cheered and shouted, "We have power!!" It was a little like Mountain Day. I went to Manna all morning, and now I need to actually do some work.

Happy Halloween.