Power Outage

Sunday morning opened with beautiful Memorial Weekend weather. The serenity of the mountains had not yet been interrupted by the sound of four wheelers. As the clock approached 9 am, a failure in Idaho Falls interrupted the grid for the entire mountain from Ashton Hill to West Yellowstone.

The merchants were most immediately affected. With cash registers and gas pumps down, commerce came to a screeching halt.  Doug at Robin’s Roost calmly sat in a booth at the back of the store while assuring customers that the electricity would be reestablished soon as he checked for power company updates.

Chad at Mack’s Inn was beginning the second operational day of his new ice cream store when he was hit with no power, hence no refrigeration.  Making the best of the situation, he enthusiastically proclaimed all ice cream 50% off. Using ice from the nearby convenience store, the ice cream survived the crisis. Chad did mention that he was considering a backup generator.

I appreciated the calmness with which the merchants dealt with the power crisis which had interrupted their first busy retail weekend of the season. They reminded me of a duck on a pond. No matter fast a duck franticly paddles, above the surface he appears calm.

Returning to the cabin, I was faced with the one area of power loss that could not be ignored. Wells do not supply water when there is no power to the pumps. All of Island Park is on well water. Showers, dishes and laundry can wait but toilets, not so much! Grabbing a couple of 5 gallon buckets, I headed down to the river to fill them. Other bucket toting residents made the same pilgrimage. Ten gallons of water was enough to keep the toilet tank full until the power was restored.

The power was restored in stages beginning around noon. It was after 3:00pm before it was restored at Mack’s Inn.