Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Ice Storm!



...And no, I don't mean the movie with John Cusack.

I mean the real thing--36 hours without electricity and a whole bunch of beautiful trees cracking and falling, the sound like gunshots in the darkest part of the night.

It was bad, folks. But the power's back on now and helpful electric crews have come from Texas and Kansas and Missouri to get us back on track. Thank you, everyone who came to help out.

We needed it.

At my house, the power went out at 3:30 Monday morning. It came back on at about 3 Tuesday afternoon. Yikes! Outside during this time, temperatures hovered just around the freezing mark. We have gas heat--but the blower and temp. gauge won't work without electricity, so if the power goes out, we have no heat. We do have a gas stove, however. So I brought my portable Carbon Monoxide monitor from the bedroom and put it by the stove and turned on the burners. We sat in the kitchen to keep an eye on our improvised heat source. We burned candles for light when it got dark. And we went to be early. Really early.

Luckily, we have new windows and all new exterior doors and our house is well-insulated. So we were fine.

The sad part around here is that we lost several big, beautiful trees on our street. A couple of them landed on houses and vehicles. But everyone's fine now, at least in my neighborhood, so we count our blessings and pick up the piles of fallen limbs...and go on.


Tree limbs encased in a shiny, jewel-like coating of ice are so beautiful. Hard to believe they can do such terrible damage.

3 comments:

Susan Crosby said...

Wow! Amazing photos. I'm glad you're back up and running, but that sure does look cold--brrrr. This Californian doesn't experience that. What a shame to lose so many big, old trees to the ice, too.

Stay warm!

Susan

Michele said...

Oh, wow! Christine, I'm so happy to hear you're all doing well. What photos--and what an experience!

I guess there's something to be said for having a gas stove. Yikes.

Glad you're safe and healthy.

Michele Cwiertny
(from OCC)

Christine Rimmer said...

Susan, thanks. :) I'm starting to feel downright blessed as hundreds of thousands in the state are still without power. Oh, and our yard is one big pile of debris, all stacked and ready for the city--or FEMA--to come 'n' get it.

Michele, hey! I was sure grateful for my gas burners. I know it's dangerous to use a cooktop for heat. But desperate times...and all that. Thanks for the good wishes.