Pullman, WA is about 30 miles north, northwest of here. About 4 miles north of Pullman, last Wednesday, a farmer with a plow managed to hit a major natural gas supply line punching a large hole in it while trying make a ditch for a drainage pipe he was installing. Consequently, a large number of the communities south for 120 miles and east or west of US-95 & US-195 lost natural gas. In my home, we have no cooking range, central heat or hot water from our hot water heater. They haven't released the farmer's name I am sure for safety reasons. The utility company reported 37,000 customers without natural gas. Some restaurants have managed to stay open with reduced/modified menus. Schools have been closed, businesses, some open, some closed. One heating/AC company opened a local office last month, shipped in and loaned out over 3,000 small heaters to locals. The utility company has over 500 workers some from 5 other states in the area who first shutoff every home/office/building's gas supply and now are purging and relighting each customer's natural gas powered products.
We received a phone call last night informing us that today or tomorrow would be our restoration day.
When we remodeled our kitchen, we installed a gas range with 2 full ovens and added an electric wall oven. That wall oven has heated pans of water for us, cooked dinners and has actually helped heat the upstairs of our home. We have been blessed with temperatures that didn't' go much below 40º F at night and got into the mid-50's during the day. Saturday, our oldest son, a recently retired sheriff's deputy happened to walk into a local ranch supply store as they received a pallet of electric heaters. He purchased 2 and brought them to us. He told his Mom, take them, kissed her on the forehead and left. I guess he didn't think the old folks could handle it. With just one heater on our main floor has remained at around 70º F. We shut it off at night as we sleep better when it's cool. It's what we do with the central heating/AC using our smart thermostat.
As soon as we get our normal hot water back, I plan on taking a hot shower, fighting a battle with the soap and wash cloth, purposely losing the battle and yet, winning the war!