What part of Ky are you in ? Our son is in Louisville, and his big oak tree split and went on the roof, I think he has power though. It's really terrible down there. I hope your electric stays on and you can get things back to normal, I can't imagine the mess with the trees down!

My DD lives on campus at the University of Louisville. We are about 80 miles south west of Louisville. My DD says there are a lot of trees down in Louisville and a lot of power outages.

I'm going to sound dumb for a moment so don't laugh...okay??? LOL

When you say an ice storm...does that mean it rains and that turns to ice because the temps are freezing?

I live in North Florida and have never experienced anything of this nature. I am so sorry for people that have to go through this, it must be very scary.

Hope the electricity comes back for everyone soon. The hurricanes every year knock out our electricity for weeks but we just have to deal with heat.....and skeeters.

Stay safe!

Deb

Water service is kind of spotty too. The water plants are having a hard time maintaining power. Several of the surrounding counties are under a boil water alert. Cell phone service can be iffy at times too. Our county (Grayson County) has a lot of lakes and so there are a lot of lake houses that are out in the boonedocks, on TV yesterday they reported that officials hadn't even been able to get to some of these homes because of down trees and power lines. We are under a 10pm curfew in our town as of now. I don't live in a huge city (25,000) but it isn't Mayberry, even with all the power outages and I'm talking major power outages to the point of no power at all in the whole city for at least 24 hours there has been no looting or any crimes of that nature. The hospital in our town only got power back on thursday, up until then they had been operationg on generators. Our local radio station was without power and off the air for 72 hours so any annoucements or news for our town was coming from radio stations in other cities. It was really eerie, we felt so disconnected from the world, not even the world, but from our own town. I can't even explain the feeling fo helplessness at least in the beginning. I mean when this all started the roads where covered with ice so you couldn't leave your home, no power and when we did find a radio that would work on batteries our local station (which is only about a mile down the road) had no power or service. We were stuck at our house with no news of what was going on with our family and friends. Thank God for cell phones. It was the only way of knowing if everyone was okay. My mom had no power so her phone didn't work and her cell phone stays in her purse dead most of the time because she doesn't like to use it. We had no word on her at first and thankfully she had a phone with a cord and she thought to plug it in and she called us all to let us know she was fine. She has heat so we knew that wouldn't be a problem, but to not be able to talk to her and know for sure she was terrible.

I'm glad you have power back and are being a shelter in the storm!
I have great empathy for you. In Dec 2002 over 2 million in NC lost power during the ice storm. We were without electric and phone for 7 days. We are also on a well and had no running water during that time. Thankfully we were prepared.
After the ice had cleared we had to wait to get a chipper in. (In the mean time another ice storm hit, another 4 days w/o power) We lost 128 trees (mostly pine) in the hedge rows around the house.

Not a stupid questions Deb. It came down as rain but because the temps were so cold as soon as it hit anything it froze. We got about a 1/2 of what they call freezing rain, so that means that everything had about 1/2 of solid ice on it. Trees and power lines go down from all the weight.

Been there, done that. In a previous storm (2002?), we were without electricity for 3-4 days, and it's like you say---nothing is open, you can't drive down streets, you feel so isolated! Once you've been through it, you sure feel sorry for the places where it happens. I never had a clue until we had one just how bad it can be.

Stay safe ~

We were not as prepared as we should have been. We did buy flashlights and extra batteries and we had plenty of candles and food and water. The heat was the thing. By monday there was not a heater or generator to be found and to be honest we weren't too concerned because our weather forecast at the time said that we were right on the line in the front moved we wouldn't get anything, well it moved. The ice started monday night and tuesday the county had no power at all, none. Thursday about mid morning one gas station in the whole town was letting people have five gallons of gas per vehicle, the line for this gas was honestly 1/2 mile long.

Has anyone heard from Kath? I think she's in Lexington?

The director of emergency management was just on the news and he said that Grayson County seems to be a state on its own because we are not receiving any emergency help from other states or counties. 95% percent of Grayson County is still without power and about 40 % without water. He said he hasn't been contacted by anyone about this disaster. Sad. I guess we are left to our own defenses. The schools have been turned into shelters.

CurlySue....Indiana folks are sending prayers to you all. Here in Evansville we're pretty much in the same shape....we have lost so many trees to the ice, the city isn't even making any estimate on damage yet. Our power was restored yesterday after 72 hours and we still have 65,000 without power. We have friends and family around Madisonville and Hopkinsville.....their okay for now. The ice is so thick here the people who are trying to help us can't get from one point to another to begin helping. Bless their hearts, we have 400 utility workers from Michigan and Wisconsin who have come to help us. The Red Cross opened 5 shelters to give folks some hot meals and shelter from the cold. Its 12 degrees right now but we're supposed to warm to above 40 today and the thawing begins (like you said, this is the dangerous time, when it begins to thaw we'll probably lose our power again) the trees lose all the ice and then "snap back" and bring the lines down again. We have our elderly neighbor staying with us (shes such a sweetie and has no family in the area). I hope things improve somewhat today.....the trucks can't get food and supplies to us because of the icy roads and the local businesses who are lucky enough to have power are running out of stock. We do have water in the city tho'....except for the folks with well water and they have been getting water to them, thank goodness. Take care of yourselves and please be careful....

According to everything we have heard Lexington was not hit with the ice. They are about 140 miles north east of us, they got some snow and sleet but not a lot.

Good graces... it's the 2007 disaster that hit Tulsa all over again.

Like Rita said, till you lived through one of these, you just don't know what all to do to prepare.

I know, we had all we needed this time (even kerosene for the heater), but we were lucky and weren't hit that hard. Never lost power.

But we were iced in. As soon as the temps came up, I started ice removal on our driveway, side walk and walkway to the house.

I needed something to keep busy.

I am glad, those of you that can, post and let us know how you are.

And I am wishing for the rest to get power soon. There is nothing like power after you didn't have any.

Moni

Thank you CurlySue for explaining. I do believe it would be the most horrible thing to deal with weather wise!!! The roads are icy too then!! How do cars/trucks keep from sliding all over?

I'm so sorry ya'll are dealing with something like this. I can't imagine living in conditions that cold!!!!

Deb

Is Auburn, Indiana, in the ice storm area and without electricity?

It is so bad in Kentucky that it made the news earlier today, with pictures.

BRRR!

Good luck to everybody riding out the storm.

Sue

Kathsgrdn's town(I made a mistake on the name in prior post) is hard hit, according to their local newspaper.

Hope they're warm and dry...she was asking about heaters a couple of days ago, just in case.

Stay safe. Unfortunately, these storms have a steep learning curve.

We were in Little Rock in December 2000 in an all electric house. We had two ice storms come through that month. Our house was without power for eight days total. It was eery. Transformers were blowing everywhere around us. We weren't used to the darkness outside at night. My then 6 1/2 mo ds#1 and I both were sick with a cold. Ds's turned into RSV. After that first day when we realized how bad it was we went to my parent's house in a different part of Arkansas where they just had snow. The second storm hit at Christmas. We saw that one coming so we left before it hit.

We were in Tulsa for last year's storm. We got really lucky and got our power back in less than 12 hours. THe next street over was out for four days. At least the ice melted away quick.

I'm so sorry for everyone without power. It's HARD to deal with and we are luckier than most in that we have a generator and a wood stove. Those that can't heat their homes usually do have to go somewhere else, but if no one has power, you can't even get a motel room anywhere. You are at the mercy of others, that's for sure.

Good luck to you all in the storm-ravaged areas. Our power is now on, it was off for 4.5 long days, but maybe it'll stay on now.

SheilaJ....as far as Dekalb County and Auburn I think they have much,much snow (blowing snow has been a real problem there) but none of the utility problems like in the southern part of Indiana. They are located near Fort Wayne....probably a good 6 to 7 hour drive north from where we are. Haven't heard much news from the northern part of the state.......

If Kath is in Lexington, Ky it was hit pretty hard. We had heard reports earlier that they were not hard hit, but according to everything that I am seeing on the net they are in bad shape too.
My sister just called, she lives in Elizabethtown, which is about 30 miles from me and she just got power. This was her 5th day without.
Our power went out again today for a couple of hours. They say this will happen from time to time while they are getting more and more customers up and going.
We are having a Super Bowl/happy to have power party
tomorrow. You can come over, watch the game, take a shower, do laundry, charge your cell phone and get a hot meal all in one place.

My prayers go out to all of those suffering without power. We went through our up-to-4-wks. without power here in SE TX after Ike, but we were blessed that we didn't have to worry about freezing to death. I lived in NE OH for 38 yrs. and never experienced a power outage for longer than an hr. or so. My prayers go out to y'all. . .

Auburn just has the snow, Ft.Wayne got some of the ice but nothing bad.

WOW, Curlysue, that is an awesome invite! You rock!

Moni