Students Survive the Snow

On Jan. 3, Virginia was hit by a huge snowstorm that caused lots of people to lose power and more in Fluvanna County. I was one of them. I lost power for nine days and it was challenging for my family to survive. When I woke up around 8:30 am on that Monday I still had power, but not long after waking up it went out. A tree had fallen on the power line and a live power wire was blocking the driveway so, aside from having no power, heat, or water, we couldn’t go to the store to get supplies.
The first day was hard as we adjusted to life with no running water and no way to cook food. Thanks to my dad, we had prepared for this, so we managed. We had jugs of water and a gas grill and gas canisters which we used to cook food. We live near a Food Lion so we were able to walk there, but were limited in what we could buy due to the snow, having to walk, and the fact that the store’s shelves were mostly empty. We used the snow and cooler to keep things like sandwich meat, cheese, eggs, and milk cold.
We used our phones to pass the time. Although we didn’t have power to charge them, We did have solar panels which charged them slowly. Another way we passed the time was talking to each other, something we rarely do when we are glued to our devices. We also played games like mini air hockey and mini foosball.
To me, the snow was both a good thing and a bad thing for my family. We learned how to be better prepared for emergencies, as well as to appreciate things that don’t involve using your phone. On the negative side, we lost lots of frozen food and one of our pet turkeys, which actually froze to death.
How did other Flucos survive during the snow nightmare? I interviewed these students to get their experiences when the snow hit Fluvanna County. Here are a few of their stories.

Mia Martinez ‘22
“Our power went out right around 9 am on Jan. 3. I had just gotten the call that my work was closed for the day, so I had to figure out how to occupy my time. Thankfully, my house is powered by gas, so I didn’t have to worry about heat or food.
I would say the hardest part was disconnecting from seemingly everything as we had no internet access. I definitely learned just how dependent I am on it. We only lost power for two or three days. All in all, we were very lucky and had it a lot better than most people.”

Astrid Carrion ‘23
“My power went out Jan .3 to Jan .7. We had no electricity or internet but we did have water. The house was really cold because the heat wasn’t working. I didn’t mind [it] much, but my dad didn’t like it. He was very whiny. We used a generator for the fridges and to charge our phones.”

Matthew Gresham ‘24
“When my power went out, I was sitting in my room watching Iron Man 2 on my Xbox. The power had been blipping for about 30 minutes. During the time we didn’t have power, we either read, painted, or played board games. For food, we cooked some food with a portable stove that my dad had.”