Our Home Away from Home!

Our Home Away from Home!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Ice Storm Nightmare!!

Tomorrow we are supposed to get sleet and freezing rain with an accumulation of ice up to 1/2 "!  "Every time" I hear ice I get a little paranoid, why? Because in 1991 we lived through one of the worst Ice Storms to hit Indiana. We were living in Frankfort, In at the time which is about 15 miles north of where we are now. I just happen to be 8 and 1/2  months pregnant with Hannah. One night it was very late after midnight and it started to sleet. Lindsay was 3 at the time with her 4th birthday party that following weekend. We had picked up her cake that day for the party knowing the storm was coming and wanted to be sure we could get it. The sleet was hitting our kitchen window and it sounded like it was the size of peas. Of course Art and I couldn't sleep and I ended up with horrible indigestion due to the pregnancy and the storm. I was sipping on some soup around 2 am when the power went out. Well great! We stepped outside to see what other houses were out and it was like a war movie. You could hear limbs and trees crashing everywhere, and it was so dark you couldn't see the hand in front of your face. Can you say, "Eerie" We went back inside and around 4 am we saw a flash light peering in our window, then it moved and went to another window, then another, all around the house. Let me tell you I almost had Hannah right there and then.
Art finally went out and it was the Sheriff's dept. My Mom was so worried about us with me being pregnant and all, and the phones were dead, with no cell phones yet, so she called them to come out and check on us.  Took me hours to calm down.

The next day was unbelievable!!!!!  It looked like a tornado had gone through. Trees, telephone poles, power lines were down every where. You couldn't drive down many of the roads due to the damage. The ice that had formed on our antenna on the truck was the diameter of a banana. Our fence was a solid sheet of ice about 2 " thick. I-65 was closed due to power poles ( you know those HUGE ones in fields) were down and lines were laying on the interstate. It was a mess!  We had animals at the time and being in the country we had no water, with our own well and no pump. So we had to go and get water in buckets from our friend in town, oh that was fun!  We were without power for 19 LONG miserable days.
We lived in the kitchen mostly with our stove heating the place. The county we lived in was declared a disaster and only emergency vehicles were allowed on the roads. So no birthday party. We didn't go hungry though because no party meant a huge cake for us to eat! Took me until the following year to be able to look at another piece of cake. So when they mention ice.....well you can only guess the memories that come flooding back. If you don't hear from me for a while you know we are without power...now that is not funny!

                                         So from Cold Indiana Best Wishes.

16 comments:

  1. Wow what a story! I can understand why you don't like to hear about ice storms.

    Why don't you get outta dodge and come on down to Florida? It's been in the 80's every day and there's a few empty campsites right nearby!

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    1. Oh I wish we could! But, unfortunately have to finish up the house and the wedding. Just think "next" year this time we WILL be in Florida. I'm glad you are in the good weather.

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  2. We are sitting here in a snow storm right now. Going to get 12 inch of the white stuff:((

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    1. Oh wow! Ours is supposed to turn into snow too. Depends on how it tracks...more ice or more snow.
      Gotta love winter...NOT!

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  3. Jeeeez Tammy ~ glad you did wait to have Hannah ... that would have been way too much pioneer stuff ... no electricity ... how miserable! 19 days... and well, jumping jeez! you were 9 months pregnant when the electricity came back on!? What a story!

    It's icy and dangerous here in Arkansas ... clouds are really heavy and gray ... lovely

    glad I have plenty of coffee ~ just watching the water and grayness ... icicles are hanging off the bird feeders ~ I've only seen the woodpecker this morning ... seems that tree would be awfully hard to peck!

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    1. Be safe and stay in and drink your coffee. I know the poor animals outside in it, makes me sad to see them.
      Hopefully all we will have are "tiny" icicles hanging around tomorrow.

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  4. I don't like to hear this Tammy! My trailer is on the way and should be delivered to keystone in Goshen today or tomorrow...I have my fingers crossed it won't be anything like the storm you remember, I don't need anymore damage to deal with!

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    1. If they make it through and get into Northern In they should be fine. Looks like all snow up there. Not sure how much they will get, but I'm sure if it gets bad they will pull over and sit it out. Good luck!

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  5. Oh Tammy, I've been through two severe ice storms in my live, one when I was young and the other was in 1998. That was a huge ice storm with much wide spread damage everywhere. Whole forest of trees broken like match sticks.

    I sure hope that this is just a mild one. Get prepared with all the necessities, just in case.
    Stay safe and warm.

    Hugs,
    JB

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    1. I think ice is one of Mother Nature's worse conditions for trees. I remember after the storm the trees that didn't fall looked horrible. All the limbs were ripped and jagged looking. Took years for them to look normal again.

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  6. I hope its not too bad this time. Stay safe and stock up the larder!

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    1. Thanks Muffy. Yes, stocking up is the best defense. Water, is the worst. You can't flush toilets, you can't shower, oh it makes me shudder to think about it.

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  7. Load up on firewood and stay warm. Enjoy a cup of hot chocolate! Ice is not good...we had an ice storm in GA a few years ago. Not fun!

    Hope to hear from you soon!

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    1. We are staying warm for now. It really started heavy around an hour ago. Keeping our fingers crossed it is not going to be heavy. We have lots of water in storage containers. They are already posting delays and closings on TV.

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  8. I can see how you would be a bit concerned about that kind of weather!

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    1. Yes, concerned but know we can't do much about it but just wait it out. Hopefully tomorrow it will be over and the sun will be out.

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