(The following is a true story.)
I have a friend who lives down in Somer’s Point, halfway between Atlantic City and Ocean City. He invited a bunch of old college friends (myself included), some of whom I hadn’t seen since graduation over a year ago. I got down there late Friday night and we immediately went out to a local bar.
The place was pretty standard as far as bars go. We were there for maybe 45 minutes before the power cut out, which promptly came back, so we thought nothing of it. Not 15 minutes later, the place loses power again, so we go outside on the porch. It was then that I witnessed the most powerful and violent electrical storm I’ve ever seen in my life. We’re talking 2-3 lightning strikes a second. It was surreal.
Half our group was freaking out and wanted to head back to the apartment and the other half wanted to stay at the bar and wait it out. It was about 1:15 AM at this point, and the bar was closing at 2:00 AM, so we decided to just head out then. However, the kid who got us there was pretty tipsy, so I ended up driving his massive truck back (we nicknamed it the APC because it was so fucking huge).
On the way back there were downed trees and live electrical wires everywhere. It turns out there was a major windstorm with sustained +70m mph winds that came through the area while we were in the bar. Unfortunately for us, this meant we didn’t have any power at the apartment, which was still +90°F inside. What resulted was one of the most uncomfortable nights I’ve ever had the misfortune of trying to sleep through.
The next day (yesterday) we roamed about for an hour before we found a Shoprite that had power, grabbed some non-perishables and got out of the madhouse as soon as we could. We tried to stay out of the apartment as long as we could, so we spent a good portion of the day in Ocean City. The apartment last night was even hotter than the night before, so we elected to just get a hotel room for the night. Apparently we weren’t the only ones to think of this, because every hotel and motel that had power in Atlantic City, Ocean City, Somer’s Point, Mays Landing, Vineland, Hammonton, Ventnor, Margate, Pleasantville and Egg Harbor were booked full. After unsuccessfully driving around for 3 hours, we conceded defeat and went back to the apartment to sweat ourselves to sleep. Come morning (today), we just split ways immediately, and I only got home a little while ago.
This weekend has permanently fixed Winter as my favorite season.
