In the Aftermath of an Ice Storm

The East Coast was hit with a massive snow and ice storm yesterday.  Here in our neck of the woods, we saw ice.  Lots of ice.  Preliminary estimates are coming in at 0.5 inches.  Half an inch of ice doesn't seem like enough, but it's enough to bring trees down - on power lines, houses, and cars.

 

Our neighborhood was fortunate.  We live in an old subdivision.  (As in 50 years old.)  The neighborhoods around us have been in place for 20 years or less.  I believe we are on a different circuit than the new neighborhoods, as we usually have power even when they lose power.  Even though our lights blinked on and off yesterday, we never once lost power.  There are some advantages to living in an older neighborhood!

 

The big disadvantage to living in an old neighborhood?  Our trees are big. They are very big.  They are old.  And they fell.  Yesterday morning, I awoke to the huge flash of light that was a transformer exploding somewhere.  (5:30 am)  Not sure how long our power was going to last, I hopped into the shower and then moved to an area of the house that would not be impacted should a tree fall down.

 

I went outside around 7 to take a look at the damage, and I could hear the sounds of tree branches cracking, breaking, and ripping followed by a loud "thud" as the branch hit the ground.  I watched as the neighbor down the street from us lost all of the trees in his yard in a 3 minute period.  Rip, crash, smash, branch after branch came down, and then the trees themselves split down the middle to the ground.

 

We could still get in and out of our neighborhood to the main road yesterday, but most of the streets to the neighborhoods were blocked with downed trees.  As soon as the ice stopped falling, people were out in our neighborhood with chain saws.  Since most of us use wood stoves to heat their houses, the wood was quickly cut down and added to woodpiles for next season.

 

Unfortunately, the damage north of us was significant.  Daughter and I drove up there this morning and had our breath taken away by the damage.  An entire Christmas Tree farm was wiped out.  The trees were destroyed by the ice.  A big wooded area close to the road had lost most of the old growth trees.  Live power lines were still down, and road crews and police officers were manning the ends of the roads, keeping people from venturing down the road.  Power is still out in large chunks of the county, and most of our schools are without power.  Those schools that have power are being used as shelters.  SO, we had no school today, I'm not sure if we will have school tomorrow or not.  The kids have been to school one day this week - Tuesday - and they went in as a 2 hour delay.

 

I've heard that those who are without power up North of us have moved food outdoors - to the north side of their house and buried it in the snow.  Some have put their milk and orange juice into their snowy bushes on the North Side of the house to keep it cool. 

 

Remember I had said yesterday that I had filled my freezer with water containers filled with water?  The purpose was to keep the freezer as cold as possible so that I wouldn't face this situation.  We also have a generator that we can run every so often in order to keep a freezer full of frozen food cold.  I think I would be worried about critters breaking into my food supply outdoors, buried in the snow.  I'd have my food in a cooler, filled with snow if it were me.  With all of the snow and ice, the critters are starved, and just a tarp or the packaging is not going to stop a hungry animal from digging into my food. 

 

One last thought about ice storms.  We do have a grill and a propane stove.  We have a sheltered area outdoors where we cook.  It has a little roof so that we can use it in inclement weather.  We've used it before when the power has been out.  We went to the trouble to make it sheltered and with a roof so that we could cook outdoors.  Cooking indoors on a propane stove is bad.  When you cook with propane, (or kerosene), you build up carbon monoxide in your house  Carbon Monoxide kills.  If you are without power, and need to cook, DO IT OUTSIDE. 

 

Be safe!

 

A few pictures from our ice storm:

 

This tree is old.  I'm not sure how old, but we're estimating close to 100.
It's been here since this neighborhood was farmland.
This tree was one of those trees that the farmer plowed around.
I took this picture at daybreak on Weds, a couple of hours after the storm had started.
You can already see the branches starting to pile up under the tree.

Icicles on the clothesline.

The berry bush in front of my house.

This is my tree this morning.  Take a look back at yesterday's picture and today's picture.
There's a lot less of the tree up in the air.
Look at those branches on the ground around the tree.

Branches on the ground.
You can't see it, but there are still several more, dangling overhead that have not yet dropped.

This was a big branch.
I'm 5'5" tall, and this branch is a good 6 or more inches higher than I am.
 

That birdhouse was up on a post under the tree branch on Tuesday.
Compare my hand to the size of the branch.
That was a big branch.
When we cut the branch down this weekend, I want to count the rings and see how old that branch was,
so I can get a better idea of how old the tree is.

A better view of the branch, looking up towards the end from where I was standing by the split.