“It was a casualty of the situation.” That sentence came to mind following the big blow two week ago, when howling winds left thousands without power. Wind storms, rain and lightning, drifting snow all make connecting to the power grid a bit of a chore. The power company crews are for the most part immune to the fright of such storms. It’s just another day at the office.
Some days there is a view from the corner office that makes the world look miserable. Then there are days when the corner office view exceeds expectations and the sun sure feels good on the face. The sentence that begins this note was used one cold, frigid night long ago.
As a news photographer for WAGM in the 1980s — long live videotape — covering spot news events was a major part of the job. Car accidents, town meetings and fires were the usual. One night, in an October long ago, a fire call went out from Presque Isle’s fire station. Barn on fire, house threatened.
The location was down the road from the TV station. In those days the station zealously covered local news, good and bad. It was noteworthy and offered
Illustrations that far surpassed the usual bland pictures of bored people at a boring meeting on some sort of civic project that was more complicated to explain than prunes.
I grabbed the camera, some tapes, and a jacket and down the road I went in the news cruiser. Arriving just as the first engines were pulling up was a treat.
Flames were coming through the roof of the barn. Fire crews were pulling hoses, yelling for pressure, more trucks, mutual aid, and a whole lot of curses as the event unfolded. Right in the middle of it: some lanky guy with a camera.
Within minutes of arrival the barn was a goner. Those old potato barns with their solid wood pilings and frames went fast. What had been flames through the roof became a complete conflagration. Asked for an update, this photographer dutifully reported that the building was a goner and the crews were trying to save the house. There also happened to be a car between the house and the barn; a query about the condition of the car elicited the reply simply that it was a “casualty of the situation”.
As the men and women of the power company, cable company and phone company work to restore our modern conveniences, there are thousands of casualties of the situation. Trees falling on houses, clogging roads, and showing their roots to the heralds of the battlefield. A simple blow created a pile of toothpicks in a few short hours.
Stories of loss, heroics, and hubris will be told on a long winter’s night. The lineman will have a sigh and go back to keeping the lights on. For that, a simple thank you.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in The County who graduated from UMPI and earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina. He began his journalism career at WAGM television later working in many different areas of the US. After 20 years of television he changed careers and taught in China and Korea.
