I have a lot to type, but very little time. Our power went out on Tuesday and we got it back on last night. Most of my immediate family are still without. NWA looks like a bomb hit it...literally. Here's a couple pictures of us "roughing it" and some of the ice. I'll type more later.
Edited:
For those of you out of the area, we began getting bits of freezing rain on Monday, but Monday night was when it got really bad. We were fortunate here, and didn't loose power until late Tuesday (around 4:00-ish), but it did finally go out. That evening, I stood out on the front porch and listened to all the tree branches giving away under the weight of the ice. Not 5 seconds went by without the sound of branches breaking (that is NOT an exaggeration). After nightfall, I looked out the window into the darkness, and all I could see was the bright green flashes of transformers blowing off in the distance. It looked like some sort of alien warfare. Gary, LJ and I did our best to close off the living room and kitchen to conserve what little heat our fireplace will give off, and stayed fairly warm during the daytime hours, but got pretty chilly at night. Melody, Nic, Olivea and Jeremy joined us one evening, and it was definately nice to have company. Thursday, we got a generator loaned to us from my Pawpaw. So, we had LJ's room nice and toasty for him when his bedtime rolled around. We had planned to sleep in there when we got ready for bed, but as I was heating up pizza on our propane grill, some sparks caught my attention on our roof. I thought the roof was on fire! Then I realized it was coming from our flue. So we had a minor flue fire, but we did call the fire department and have them check it out. Phil Dewey, among others from our church, were among the firemen who arrived. He more or less said we had a very minor flue fire, that we probably would have never noticed had I not just been standing right there and seen it (if any of you are reading this, thanks guys!), but I did have a big mess to clean up as a result of the fire extinguisher. But, our electricity came back on while they were here! Yippie! Our yard, along with the rest of NWA, looks like a bomb hit it. Clean up is going to be slow going, especially if the ground doesn't dry up quickly. Everyone over around my parents property (on hwy 16) are still without power, but they all have generators going now. Oh, and I almost forgot, I've got to give God his praise. We had 2 limbs that were right over our electric service to the house. Had that line gone down, we would still be without power. We prayed and prayed that those limbs wouldn't take down our line. One of the limbs fell, but managed to miss the line, and the other limb was just dangling over the line, but finally raised back up after the ice fell off and didn't break. It was the ONLY limb on this tree that didn't fall (literally, the rest of the tree broke away).
Everyone I talk to (even those who have been around this area three times longer than I...and I've been here over 22 years) have said this is the worst ice storm they have ever seen. Over 22,000 were still without power(as of last night) in Ozarks Electric territory alone, and, driving around, it is unbelievable to see the damage the ice caused. It will be many years before this area resembles what it looked like before this storm.
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