My entire family was panicking over the upcoming storm.
They were calling for drifting snow and extremely low temperatures.
The storm was to start out as freezing rain and end as freezing rain with up to two feet of snow in between. Everyone knew what this kind of storm could do to their electricity. Fallen trees knocked out the electricity once or twice a year. The heavy snow and ice often pulled down the power wires. We didn’t have any concerns. We recently had the generator cleaned and serviced. A month earlier, we had the furnace serviced, and we knew we would have power and no need to worry about lack of heat. Unfortunately, not all of our friends and family were as well prepared as we were. The storm had barely begun when we were getting phone calls. I couldn’t refuse to let my parents come to the house. They had already lost power and their furnace was no longer working. My husband’s sister called and told us she couldn’t be in a house without heat, since she had a newborn. When my husband’s friend called, I had enough. I told him to tell his friend to go to a hotel. We weren’t running a shelter for people who had a lack of planning. We did our planning and made sure our furnace would work regardless of what happened with the power. If we could get a generator to keep our furnace working, so could everyone else. I know they’re expensive, but it’s also expensive to go without the furnace and have pipes freeze, or people are sick or dying from frostbite.