Weathering The Storms

Ice Storm Feb. 11, 2008
a recap from Jan.12,2007 Ice Storm in the Ozarks of SW Missouri
It's the sounds we remember most. And the generosity of neighbors and strangers.
The kindnesses that made life tolerable during the days and weeks we were without electricity, cable, phones and running water.
The Neighbors pulling together in a time of crisis...walking down the streets, going door to door to offer a lending hand, giving food, hot coffee or to do laundry.
We had a generator on our Motor home, it had two extension cords running off it, constantly running for the 13 days we were without power. One going into our house, the other to our neighbors.
The closeness it brought to our family, our Daughter and son-in-law loosing power, running out in the storm ,to come to our home with two babies in arms, burst in the door to get out of ice coming down so hard and fast. We still had Power at this time ,but only for one day, before our power pole come crashing down, breaking from the base, loosing power .The days to come were all about survival, me making sure to make everyone as comfortable as possible, my husband keeping generator going, filled up with gas. There were lots of food cooked, Chilli, Stews, etc. ,big amounts to share with the whole neighborhood who didn't have any way to cook, much less stay warm.
The Winter Storm of Jan. 12,2007 here in SW Missouri...glistening sheets of ice
It first started on Friday evening, bringing limbs down within an hour, as it iced up very quickly.
I can still hear the constant and unsettling snapping of tree limbs, all night long, like loud gunshots, the sounds of exploding transformers, the revving up of chainsaws, the sounds of many long days of generators running,13 days to be exact.
It's Saturday now Jan. 13,2007
Daylight brings the errie look of a war zone, trees split in half or completely up rooted from the weight of the ice. The ones still standing, no matter how tall, their branches are bent over touching, froze to the ground. Our beautiful Bradford pear tree was split in half. Yards and properties feet deep in Fallen Trees, roads covered with downed power lines ,the damage so extreme, it will take a long time to recover.
No one had any Power, houses ruined, cars demolished by fallen trees.
People standing in streets in shock, just staring.
People helping people, the community pulling together, bringing out the best in human nature, trying to survive.
Sunday Evening, Jan.14,2007,it started raining, touching the trees, freezing on contact, making the weight of the ice on the tree limbs unbearable.
Loud sounds of trees crashing down all around the neighborhood, not knowing where to be exact and no way of knowing, no street lights to see by. I would try to go to sleep ,petrified of being killed by one of our huge trees come crashing down on top of me. Not only could you hear them outside in total darkness being ripped apart, but you could also feel the impact when they hit the ground.
The next 11 days would be long, until on Jan.25,2007 .
They turned our power on, only temporarily as the power lines were hung from the trees until it could be installed properly when our new pole could be put up. On Friday the 26th,they got our pole up, but had to wait till next week to get our power hooked to it.
Jan.29,2007,we have power lines hooked up, trying to get back to some normalcy. We Survived the Ice Storm of Jan 2007
February 11,2008 (just over a year later)
They are calling it Ice Storm 2008 , hit once again here in the Ozarks of SW Missouri
Raining, freezing temps ,causing everything to turn to ice once again.
More than 250 schools closed here and Government offices.
The only difference about this years Ice Storm is, we had so much tree damage last year, causing downed power lines, loosing power everywhere. The trees have all been pruned and cut back this past year, therefore leaving little to fall on power lines. The Ice is still so thick on lines, we are having some power outages, but not as bad, allowing the crews to get the power back up and running more quickly.
It's Tuesday, Feb. 12,2008.Theres Lots and lots of Black Ice.21 degrees here, with snow now coming down really hard on top of all this Ice.
I'm prepared and ready, on stand by ,with open arms to get the babies in, or to help out my neighborhood and community.
After all....it's only Two days until Valentines Day...."It's all about Love, and Weathering the storm together.... any storm".Theres a saying here in Missouri"If you don't like the Weather,stick around,it will change"