Ice Storm 2011

I have learned a couple of things in the last two days. Well, I have always known them, but now I can say I know them from experience. 1. Ice + Powerlines + Trees= Power Outages and Destroyed Landscaping. and 2. The saying is true, "There is comfort in numbers".
To be honest with you, I am not really that confident in our forecasters ability to predict weather. It seems that the last few times they have hyped up a storm it has ended up only causing a fury of panic and chaos in the grocery stores and gas stations. I knew that this predicted ice storm was going to be serious business when I seen Randy Ollis on the noon news on Ch. 8 put his hands on his head while expressing the sheer magnitude of what was to come. I guess you could say, rather than panic I instead just made sure we were prepared. I wasn't ever nervous or anything. I know that we, 99% of the time have Culligan water. I know that we have a gas stove for cooking on, and if that goes out we have our little cook stove that we set on the picnic table when camping, and we also have the gas grill in the back yard. Cooking would not be a problem. I am a candle LOVER and so the supply of those are always stocked in case the lights go out, so we are covered there too. AND, we have a wood stove in the garage so heat is covered that way. And we also have kerosene heaters to bring in to sleep in the house with. (I wouldn't want to burn them for more than sleeping because I don't want the smell or mess in my house). Now, we'd have to sit in the garage to stay warm around the candles, but hey--it's there if we need it. Beggers can't be choosers.
SO, Monday night, as predicted this storm rolls in. From my previous post you know that Larry was off of work Tuesday, as was I, and we were waiting on round two to roll in and mom to get off of work. Luckily she did! (Thank you God).
As the evening wore on, tensions started to rise. Not for me, but rather for my neighbor. Naomi is one of the SWEETEST, and I mean SWEETEST women you will ever meet! EVER! I began to think about her and how we could get her over here to stay warm and be taken care of. She is probably pushing 90 if she is not already that or over. SHHHHHH! Don't tell her I said that. :) I knew that if we got her to the garage that if she needed to come into the house to use the bathroom that our backsteps were out of the question. However, we have an additional door a few feet away that leads right into our laundry room and from there the daycare bathroom could be easily accessed. SO, I went thru and made sure that the daycare bathroom was scrubbed down with Lysol, (Colin had been sick on Monday with a stomach bug and it needed to be done regardless), then, I needed to make sure that candles were placed safely in spots around the house that wouldn't catch anything on fire. The dc bathroom has a pedestal sink and setting one there was out of the question. Whoever would be coming in would be carrying a flashlight so it was just a matter of getting to that room. SO, after all of this preparing here's what happened....
Around around 7ish I noticed that the next door neighbors Kim and Dave were out of power. (I started to get nervous some, OK maybe not nervous, but anxious wondering what time we would lose ours). Around 8 Mom, Naomi, Lydia, and everyone in between, (all across the street from us), lost power. Our phones started blowing up. Naomi needed her kerosene heater lit. Mom needed me to watch her cross the street in case she fell. And Lydia called to tell us she was out. I told her to load up the kiddios and come on over. I called one of my best friends in town and she had lost power as well. She had just gotten her children to bed and finally started to calm her fears knowing they were tucked in bed. Larry said that he would go get her and the kids and take them to her moms if her parents couldn't get to her. I assumed that they made it over because she said they were on the way. (Thank God for that as well).
I left out the fact that Larry made us laugh because prior to the lights going out, he was cooking bacon and our power kept flashing and he was yelling "Pleeeeease, I just need 3 more minutes"! Anyone that knows Larry, knows he is such a quiet person so for him to yell out like that was quite comical.
Luckily, all night our power stayed on. Naomi stayed home with her kerosene heater. Mom, Lydia and the kids spent the night. Larry kept getting up in the night and going out to the garage to stoke the fire. The wind was howling all night.
This morning, Dave from next door came over and he had a propane heater. He took it over to moms house and Lydia's house to reheat their homes so that their pipes wouldn't burst. Dave and Kim have a handicap daughter Tara and I told him last night that if they needed to come over they were more than welcome to come. I wondered how we'd get Tara in the house--our porch was pretty much a skating rink so carrying her in--which would be the only option would be very dangerous. Then, Dave and Larry ended up running an extention cord from our house to theirs and that was enough to run the blower on their gas furnace to heat their home. (Thank you God for that too). We spent the day playing cards, playing games dice games, playing games on the TV, and basically just waiting this out. Lydia kept calling Duke Energy and at one point in the afternoon the recording told her that power would be restored no later than SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5th! WHOA! Actions needed to be taken now! Sherry, another neighbor on the other side of Dave and Kim, was here charging her cell phone when Lydia made that call and we were all like OH MY GOSH! Larry suited up and got ready to drive into town to buy kerosene for our tanks and Naomi's because clearly our plan of action would not get us through the next 3 days with subzero temps. without pipes bursting. Mom went home to get her food out of her refrigerator and freezer to bring over here and came back not longer with cheers of "I HAVE LIGHTS"! Yeah!!!! That meant so did Naomi and Lydia, and everyone in between. :) Saturday came pretty early. LOL!
When I said, at the beginning of this blog, that comfort comes in numbers I mean that. Our little block of neighbors pulled together and took care of each other just as every community should do. I'll admit, Larry and I miss living in our quaint country home surrounded by acres of farmland, but I've never been so thankful to be surrounded by such wonderful people. It is truly a blessing. We are exactly where we are meant to be in our lives at this time. We live in a great community. We have wonderful family and friends. Our daughter attends an excellent school and all of our needs are met. And for all of that I am beyond thankful.
I hope that everyone was able to deal with this past storm without too much trouble. I am so thankful to the employees of the power companies, fire departments, police departments, doctors and nurses, snow plow drivers, and absolutely every single person in between that kept our local businesses up and running during these critical times. I am thankful to them everyday, but especially now. Thanks for checking in. Until next blog...
Love,
Jenn
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