Kentucky is digging out, cleaning up, and melting...er...freezing.

Menaaard!!! · February 02, 2009, 12:34:54 AM

What a mess.

Was it Tuesday, Monday night, when this damn thing began?

Worked that day as usual; the morning drive was no fun, but the trip back was at least better.

Got back home to find my patio to be a solid sheet of ice and could not get to the front door. I asked my neighbor if they had any salt, but they didn't, so I asked for some cat litter, to which they handed me a pan of it; I found myself as I was throwing it across the patio thinking 'dear god, I hope this ain't been used'

.

Freezing rain...uhh...no...snow...uhh...no...rain...uhh...wait a minute....freezing rain again.

The yards glistened like lakes, but every damn bit of it was solid ice.

While I had been working on Tuesday, the store, naturally, had sleds out to sell, and some were actually buying them. I could not help but to think of the movie Christmas Vacation and Chevy Chase's sled ride in that, thinking of some poor kid trying to sled on this frozen mess.

Tuesday night, I bedded down in the front of the house on sleeping bags as my bedroom is in the back of the house, where the trees are, and I didn't like the thought of falling trees like we had 6 years ago in the last ice storm.

We lucked out here. Other than some flickering of lights, the power has stayed on. Of course, as of the last ice storm, the local utilities have been keeping the trees topped in certain areas and I guess it paid off.

Saturday morning it got down into single digits. There are a lot of people without power, and that can't feel good. Even with the parking lots of many stores still iced up, people were out at the stores that were open; perhaps for supplies, perhaps for cabin fever, and I imagine several were hanging around just talking to others and trying to get warm.

In one parking lot where they had scraped up some of the mess, it was interesting to see the snow banks, which normally look like dirty snow just piled up, that looked more like that peanut butter candy rolls stacked up; this stuff was so solid that it rolled up like carpets when they plowed it.

Saturday night was a noisy affair. Temperatures rising above freezing, winds blowing, trees loaded with ice. Bam...bam...bam...it went through the night. Temps were suppose to get into the upper 40s today, but my thermometer was showing the 50s; careful where you stand, you'll either get drenched or one hell of a headache.

I've seen worse, like 16 years ago, but this was more widespread, and very probably much worse in several areas of the state. 92 counties out of 120 have declared emergencies. Ice storms are not about being stuck or not being able to drive, which they do, but about the damage that much weight in ice does to trees, power lines, and the resultant damage to property.

Yep...just waiting to see what mother fuc...er...I mean mother nature has in store for us next.

How about you? How did you fare through this? Or, what did it do where you live?

Trevor · February 02, 2009, 03:49:46 AM

Quote from: Menaaard!!! on February 02, 2009, 12:34:54 AM
Got back home to find my patio to be a solid sheet of ice and could not get to the front door. I asked my neighbor if they had any salt, but they didn't, so I asked for some cat litter, to which they handed me a pan of it; I found myself as I was throwing it across the patio thinking 'dear god, I hope this ain't been used' .

It's been chilly here in South Africa but never as cold as this, Dr M: I hope all is well there with you.

Hammock Rider · February 02, 2009, 10:32:22 AM

You've got a Maker's Mark and Wild Turkey Distillery down there in Kentuck, don't ya? Then you'll be fine.

Rev. Powell · February 02, 2009, 03:05:55 PM

As I mentioned on another thread, my power was knocked out for 3 days here (Louisville).

I got off easy. No damage to the house, just spent a couple of nights at my parents/brothers house. All the ice is gone now.

Cheeze seemed to get the worst of it (he's up Paducah way, if I remember correctly). According to him, there's no power in the entire county. Check out this thread if you haven't already: http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,123142.0.html

Rev. Powell · February 02, 2009, 03:07:33 PM

Quote from: Hammock Rider on February 02, 2009, 10:32:22 AM
You've got a Maker's Mark and Wild Turkey Distillery down there in Kentuck, don't ya? Then you'll be fine.

Oh my God! You just gave me something to new worry about... WHAT IF POWER IS OUT AT THE DISTILLERIES?

Will they still be able to ferment?

CheezeFlixz · February 02, 2009, 10:01:57 PM

Yep I'm near Paducah we got HAMMERED!! I just posted some images in the other thread. I'll be cutting wood until summer and that's no joke and we're not going to get power for another month and feeding this generator is getting pricey, about $50 a day.

Mr. DS · February 02, 2009, 10:51:28 PM

Its oddly been mild the past few days in the northeast. It was about 41 today in RI and I took my winter jacket off and walked around with a tshirt for the afternoon. However, we're getting some snow tonight which should turn to rain.

I hope all you folks in KY continue to fight off the ice. My brother, who lives in central MA, had his power shut off for about a week in December due to ice. He resorted to living like a mountain man for a few days. Its been a tough winter everywhere.

RCMerchant · February 02, 2009, 11:06:45 PM

Dam....we've had many ice storms here in Michigan in the past...we're used to it,but I can imagine if it's a new occurance,it would be a real bite in the peter. Cripes....if your power goes out-and if you have a gas stove-CRANK IT! and a car battery works good for stuff like hooking up cassette players....so at least you can listen to music. Been there,man.

Torgo · February 02, 2009, 11:17:59 PM

Here in Roanoke, VA it's been fairly mild so far with the exception of that artic blast that we got a couple of weeks ago when the pipes froze up a bit in my house.

But with Kentucky being right next door, it's amazing that we didn't get hit with that stuff as well. It mostly just fell as rain with very minimal icing.

My thoughts are with all of the people who are having to suffer through this ice storm ordeal.

BTM · February 03, 2009, 02:10:10 AM

Oh, man, I know a guy who's staying at our hotel who's got it REAL bad. I dunno what area he lives in, but he told me that he just learned that his house probably won't have power until the APRIL. I said, "How did they figure THAT?" Cause I'm thinking, the ice will probably be gone by March, I'd hope. But he said that a tower FELL INTO A LAKE near where he lives and they think it'll take over a month to set up a new tower and getting everything rewired.

I said, "They can get a crane or something out there and pull it out of the water?" And said, "No, it's a wooded area."

Wow, poor fellow. Guess I was kind of stupidly thinking they could pull the tower out, let it dry, and then just rewire it. Guess not.

That got me thinking, who helps someone out in a situation like that? I mean, does any type of insurance cover it when your power is out because a freaking tower got knocked out?

CheezeFlixz · February 03, 2009, 09:19:52 AM

All the ice has melted it was in the mid 60's Sunday, tonight it's getting down into the low teems. The problem is the number of broken power poles and miles upon miles of lines down. The fields are muddy and they can't get the trucks into the fields to fix them the farmers are having to pull them in and out as they can, what we need is drying out.

There are widow makers everywhere and some keep falling taking out recently repaired lines.

I just heard my neighbor who is on a completely different grid might get power back today! That means I might get power back in a week of so ... really annoying his power rarely goes out or last and is first to be fixed an mine if first to go out and last to be fixed due to the fact I'm at the tail end of a different grid.