When their relatives’ power went out in Fayetteville, Johnathan Bennett and his wife, LaShee, said, no problem, come on up to Riverdale and stay with us.
The refugees had no sooner arrived, however, when the Bennetts lost power as well. That was at 2 p.m. Wednesday and it was still off long after the sun went down.
As many as 300,000 people across the state had no electricity Tuesday morning, but Riverdale, in Clayton County, seemed to have more than its share. The Georgia Power outage map showed upward of 17,000 people without juice in the community about 9 a.m. But the 10 people in the Bennetts’ house had been making do, with plenty of candles and a laptop that was showing a “Percy Jackson” movie.
“We have a gas stove and we’re using pots of boiling water to keep it hot in here,” said LaShee Bennett. “It’s working, and I sealed off all the windows with tape.”
The family would awake to an uncertain dawn. Although they had repair crews working furiously all over the state, Georgia Power and the EMCs warned it would take time to restore power to all areas.
The Bennetts have two kids and LaShee is eight months pregnant with the next one. But the approaching birth and the frozen conditions haven’t upset her.
“Not at all,” she said. “I have a lot of people around me to keep me sane. If I were by myself, I’d be worried.”
Johnathan Bennett said his family was holding up well.
“Everybody’s in pretty good spirits, hoping it is fixed quick. But I told them, like, be prepared, wait until the morning to be sure,” he said.
Sade Johnson, who was home Wednesday night after finishing a shift at Southern Regional Hospital, was using something like a letter opener to try to chip the solid sheet of ice off her car.
Johnson lives with her mother and brothers in the Eagles Crossing subdivision in Riverdale. The power went out at noon, about the time she was going to work, she said.
The family’s wood-burning fireplace was going strong. “It’s keeping it warm for now,” she said. “Hopefully the power comes back on soon.”
Asked what she planned to do for entertainment, Johnson was matter-of-fact: “Nothing. I’m going to go to sleep.”
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