Screech – bang – boom

3/14/2019 Elevation 2998

After moving about another 100 miles to a small community park on the edge of Crosbyton TX, we got settled in, did a quick drive around town and after checking out the lamas on the other side of the still muddy dirt road we called it a night with no intentions of making a post today. Because this was going to just be a 1 night stop.

Then about 3:30am we hear tires screeching, bang followed by a flash of light  and boom as the power lines snapped.

A semi missed the curve, laid over on its side, took out some rock fencing and broke an older pole causing the wires to break. By the time I tossed on some clothes and made it over  there the driver was out. He seemed to be a younger driver,  He was standing and appeared to be ok, except for a little blood on one hand.

My 911 call did not go through so a trucker that stopped called. I have no idea why the call did not go through to somebody but the phone added 3 numbers in front of the 911 then said sorry your call cannot be completed as dialed………. that’s kinda scary for the future.

It seemed like a long time but probably less than 10 minutes and closer to 5, the siren goes off calling out the volunteer fire department. First on the sene was an ambulance, followed shortly by several fire trucks. The strange thing was I never did see a police man. Of course by then I was freezing. The temperature was down to 35 and falling with a stiff breeze blowing. I didn’t hang around outside once the calvary started arriving. No sense standing out in the cold when we have a front row seat by just looking out the window. Had we parked in the first spot like we considered, now that would have really been exciting since the power line and pole would have been with in feet of the rig, or on the rig, as it is we’re a few spaces away. The pole had a transformer on it, so I wonder how much of the town is dark?

We may not be able to get out of here in the morning as planned, between the power company needing to reset the pole and the truck needing to be righted and hauled away……………….

More on all of this after it gets light. It’s about 5:30 now, still dark and cold. One things for sure with all the flashy light there won’t be any going back to sleep.

9:30 Update……………….. Nothing has changes, the truck is still on its side. Plan A…… They tried to set it upright using big tow trucks, but apparently it looked like (to me) the lower side was going to bust open, spilling contents everywhere. Plan B………. Might be to unload the contents to another truck. They have some pallets set out.

We’re still without power, looks like it might be most of the day before they can set a new pole. 10:00 5 trucks from the power company here and no new pole……….???? But I really don’t see them setting a new pole until the truck is moved.  Make that 6 trucks and still no new pole. I don’t know how many trucks were here total but to call it overkill would be an understatement.

Plan B……. use a bobcat to unload the cargo, they got the truck back on it’s wheels around 11:00 an hour + of cleanup and they towed the truck away.

2:00 and the new pole is set and they are stringing wire as I type this, power should be back on shortly.

While an accident is NEVER a good thing, at least it happened at a spot where they can easily reroute traffic around, if not the road would be closed…………. it’s a pretty busy 2 lane highway running from Lubbock to Witcha Falls and has lots of semi traffic.