Do you live in the midwest and were you ready for this?

Question

'Tis deja vu, we have another ice storm like the one in January. Trees down everywhere, electricity out in half the city and surrounding towns don't have any at all. We still have ours but tree branches are cracking and breaking everywhere, whole trees are falling with the weight of the ice, and it just keeps raining and freezing on. A six-inch branch came down out of my lirodendron tree as I was looking out the door a minute ago.
Not an avaliable generator in town, or kerosene or propane heater, and the city is putting its emergency plan in place this afternoon. Is anybody really ready for this kind of thing? What do you do to prepare for it?

What is the worst storm in your memory?

City trucks are out everywhere cutting up trees that have fallen in the streets, and there will be shelters open, and the elec co is working restoring electricity, but it goes out as fast as they can get it fixed. So far we are fine here, and the streets aren't icy. It isn't really cold, just enough to keep the rain freezing on the trees. 30 degrees. But there is tonite, so it could get worse.

ndnquah we had the thunderstorms and freezing rain last night, also. They are forecasting another 1/4- 1/2 in of ice before morning, there won't be a power pole left standing if we do. Hoping they are wrong. We have heaters and plenty of food and water, so we will be OK, but so far we still have electricity. So far 70,000 without power in our area.

Thanks, Der Lange, but if I disappear off the net you will know what happened. We are pretty well prepared, I think we will be OK

got a limb down on the roof, some damage to the back porch but roof is not leaking. Just a mess to clean up and a new roof for the porch. Still raining.

Answer 1

Be prepared.
When my new house was built I had a generator transfer panel installed. It only takes minutes to restore power to the house following an outage. The generator keeps the furnace running, water flowing, plenty of light, and cooking appliances heated. I have enough gasoline for at least one week continuous operation.
http://members.rennlist.org/warren/generator.html
We also have a stash of canned food, bottled water, canned juice and pop.
Worst storm in this house was following Hurricane Juan in September 2003. Power was out for three days, but fortunately it wasn't cold and no trees hit my house. Prior to that, an ice storm in the early '80s knocked out power at my parents house for almost a week. We had a wood stove and fireplace for cooking and heat.

Answer 2

so far we have about 1/2 inch of ice. more expected tonight. took me 1/2 hr. with the defroster blowing full blast to scrape my car off. they've been out salting, but not sure how much good it does when it's this cold - I've heard that salt doesn't work when it gets below zero and it's 22 F now - maybe 10 F before morning.

I think the worst storm in my memory was the winter of 76-77
lots and lots and LOTS of snow to shovel !! I was the oldest at home,so it fell on me. I was 17 - didn't dare tell my mother I was pregnant or I wouldn't have lived to see 18 - so I just went out and shoveled our 200 ft drive day after day after day.

another bad one was the winter of 84-85 I lived in Indiana at the time and there was a fire across the street from our apartment. roads had been closed for 4 days - fire truck were putting water on the fire trying to put it out and it was blowing back on my car. ice must have been about 6 inches thick - took forever to clean it all off.

I'm from Illinois by the way - don't have a generator - not much we can do to prepare for it except lay in extra food - especially bread and milk

Answer 3

I feel you for, my friend; it's on the way to Wisconsin. If it's raining ice tomorrow, I'm not driving the 21 miles to work.

Having grown up in New Jersey I can remember some snow storms that were so bad we couldn't get out the doors to shovel the snow.

My first year in Florida, yes, Florida, the family was scheduled to get together on Christmas Eve day and drive from Jacksonville to Tampa. We woke up to find everything, every single tree to every sing blade of grass, covered in ice. Roads were shut down, including the major highway between Georgia and south Florida until Noon the next day. And ice storm in Florida was something I never thought I'd see.

Answer 4

Yes, I live in the Midwest and know exactly what you are going thru. The worst Ice Storm I can remember is when our electric was off for 3 days. We wore our coats in the house and slept in the camping sleeping bags. The garage door was frozen shut with a thick layer of ice so we couldn't even get in the car to get warm. They sent out people with 4x4 vehicles to check the neighborhoods to see if anyone needed transportation to the emergency warming sites. My neighbor was a handicap person and they removed her to a shelter.

Answer 5

Poor Isadora - this is CJ and I live "up the road" from you (some time back you mentioned where you lived in a post), but so far in Springfield, it's 12:10 am on Monday morning, and I cannot sleep. It is sleeting pretty hard here but so far have power (almost afraid to use that word after January's experience) - so am praying (literally) that you and I will be safe and sound and will stay warm until this latest tantrum of Mother Nature has passed on by! To prepare for it??? I do not know - but I keep water in trunk of car, extra blankets, flashlights, canned tuna, can opener, kitty litter (in case I get stuck - and for my cats - and they eat tuna too)! Matches too - the list goes on and on. CJ

Answer 6

This Ice Storm is predicted to be worse than the ones that hit us earlier in the year. Our problems will begin here, as soon as darkness falls. The trees have already started bending low. We got extra dog food, water and supplies a few weeks back because I didn't want to be caught off guard like last time. Our state after all is called the SHO ME STATE, the big joke, if you don't like the weather today, just wait, it'll change!

Answer 7

Isadora,

Sorry to hear about the 'IceStorm" in your part of the world. I had to fly home from Thailand for my Fathers Funeral in CT back in 1972 in early February and I had to be diverted thru Shreveport, LA because of a blizzard which had hit the east coast. By the time I got into NYC they had about 9" and it was still falling.

We had an ice storm here in San Antonio Jan '07 which left the city locked down for a day or so and IH-10 was closed due to ice.

Answer 8

I'm so sorry for you. I can so remember what that was like. I still have relatives up there as well. Can't remember a specific up north but here it would have been hurricanes of course.
Shortcut, what part of Texas are you in? I'm in the southeast near Galveston and it is 80,and sunny.

Answer 9

Yes...I live there and yes it is to be expected. No surprise at all to me. When you are used to something it isn't a surprise. My husband grew up here....yet everyday he wakes up complaining about how cold it is......dugh...WINTER here....what did you expect? Did the same thing in Florida complaining about heat and humidity and hurricanes.....dugh....no surprise here...

No....if you are famaliar you have an option B and C and D.

Mid West RULE 1.....never, ever, have
everything ALL electric. EVER. Have to have gas back-up. Easiest is the stove because you can survive in one room with the oven on. Same with summer......have to have the ability to cook the foods that's defrosting as we speak. They did this thing here back in the last "global freeze". Everyone went to 100% electric. Sorry.....doesn't work. I have GAS heat and GAS stove and Gas water heater. Lived in Florida and no way do you go 100% electric. That fan when it's over 100 degrees is the difference between life and death....powered by some form of gas. You NEVER paint yourself in a corner dependant on one form of energy to get you through.

Answer 10

Wow, that is horrible, I feel so badly for all of you. Is Red Cross opening shelters for all of you yet? I used to live in Chicago but that was until the 60's. I guess the worst winter storm was when they shut down the Boston area in 1977 because of the snow. We were shut down 8 days, no roads open, no driving, no stores, no post offices, no banks, nothing!