The night that the lights went out..

While nothing like 2005 with the likes of Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and so on, this has been a particularly harsh hurricane season. Major hurricanes have hit much of the Carribean, The gulf coast of the southeastern US, and Ohio. Yep, I said Ohio. The month started with hurricane Gustav slamming into Louisiana with fears of another Katrina. It was bad, but not nearly as bad as feared. Last weekend, hurricane Ike hit the Houston and Galveston areas of Texas as a strong category two hurricane. This was not pretty. Millions are still without power, thousands lost homes, and dozens lost lives. And the unusual thing about this storm, when the remnants travelled north into the midwest as Tropical Depression Ike, it still packed quite a punch with wind and rain. It hit central Ohio just as a strong cold front was coming from the north and collided over central Ohio. It was probably the closest central Ohio will ever come to experiencing a hurricane. Trees, power lines, buildings have been damaged and some outright destroyed. And of course, power outages. The weather has been beautiful since that stormy Sunday but in much of the Columbus area, still powerless. I myself had power out for about 2 and half days. Of course, something we know and love neon runs on electricity that is not flowing in much of Ohio now..neon signs. I had hoped to get to maybe some more High Street and possibly the west side of the city for some neoning. Unfortunately, much of the power was still out in some of these areas. In 'honor' of the power (no pun intended) of Mother Nature and Father Time, my next post will pay tribute to neon that has gone dark..permanantly, yet still adorns the buildings and streets of Columbus. Today, I am showing a few bar specific neon signs from Gabby's Tavern on the north side of the city, which have sat on my camera for a while now. Watch for my next post. And perhaps by the end of the week, the lights will be on and glowing again for my next photo tour.