A year ago today the gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley (Mass) happened. My town and neighborhood were right in the thick of it.
That day I cut out of work early to pick up an exchange student that was staying with us for a couple of weeks and one of his classmates to take them to my daughter's soccer game in Beverly (about 25 miles from home). After a quick stop for an ice cream we got to watch what, to this day, may be my daughter's best performance in any sport. It was probably the most fun I've ever had watching her play anything.
Then, suddenly everything changed. At halftime my 15 year old son called in a panic telling my wife that he could hear explosions and sirens and didn't know what was going on. While they were talking he got an alert to evacuate the town. He bravely checked on the neighbor who has two little ones, called some friends he knew might be alone and met up with my mother in law who drove him and the dog to my brother and sister in law's a couple of towns away.
A couple of us went over the coach to let her know what was going on. The assistant coach is married to a police captain in our town and she went into her bag to check her phone and it had blown up with calls and texts. The athletic director told the coach to have the girls leave with their parents because nobody knew if the bus would be allowed back into the school parking lot or even the town. Obviously not every player had a parent at the game. I ended up piling my daughter, the two exchange students and three other players in my car to head back to town. The drive down route 114 was kind of surreal, as there was bumper to bumper traffic going away from North Andover/Lawrence and nobody but myself and first responders from that area heading into the fray. I was able to get the kids to their homes, most with their parents waiting in the driveway with the car packed so they could evacuate as soon as the girls got there.
I brought my daughter to the high school to get her car and she and the exchange student went to my brother's. I went home to get clothes/supplies and to turn off the gas and then got stuck in the worst traffic one could imagine. My daughter was able to get to my brother's, which is typically 15 minutes away in about 1/2 hour because of the route she took from the high school.
Our home was in the neighborhood where the explosions were happening, and because of blocked roads, I needed to take a different route. The ride that usually took 15 minutes took me 1:45. I was on the I-495 bridge over the Merrimack River for about 45 minutes without moving.
In the end, I'm happy to say that we were much luckier than so many of our friends that day because, although my son was pretty shook up, we were all safe and didn't have any property damage.
Enjoy every day to its fullest because you never know what tomorrow will bring.