The local utility company, Kansas Power and Light, has said they may not have electricity restored until the holiday, says Vagjrt, a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Lindsborg. “They’re telling us seven to 10 days from now.”
The family is one of many across the Midwest in the same predicament since storms roughed up the region beginning a week ago Sunday. More than one million people were left without electricity. Although a majority of people have had power restored, tens of thousands of homes still face a long wait.
Jon Black, pastor of Countryside Covenant Church in nearby McPherson, says some members have borrowed generators from neighbors. Others are staying with family and friends. “Our youth pastor and family stayed with us for one night and the next day.”
The power at the Vagjrt’s home went out early Tuesday morning. “The first couple of days you think, ‘no problem, we can do this,’ ” she says. “A week seems like a long time.”
Branches came down all around the house as the storm hit early last week. “I laid in bed and I could just hear branches falling,” Vagjrt recalls, adding that she heard eight come crashing down between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. “It looks like a war zone.”
Vagjrt and her husband, Joe, are doing what they can to stay warm. “We’ve got a fireplace and a lot of firewood,” she says. “We sleep by the fireplace.” Their teenage daughter has been staying with friends who have electricity.
The couple constantly has to make adjustments to deal with the loss of power. “You don’t realize how you are such a creature of habit and routine until it is disrupted.”
Vagjrt is maintaining a good sense of humor about the situation. She laughs as she tells about taking a half hour to cook a can of soup on a single burner stove.
“There’s nothing else we can do,” Vagjrt says. “It is what it is.”
The couple is approaching the situation with gratitude because it could be worse. “We’re grateful that the limbs didn’t hit the house,” Vagjrt says. “We spent last night playing count your blessings.”
The couple is able to leave their home, which is not the case for everyone in the area, especially senior adults. “I feel bad that there are a lot of people who can’t get out,” Vagjrt says.
People have been helping each other. Those with generators have used them to help neighbors run their heaters until the houses warmed up. That assistance will need to continue. National Weather Service forecasters say there is likely more to come.
