Ice Storm from Hell
 

The national media are totally neglecting what is going on in Oklahoma.

First of all, it's 32 degrees inside my house. (I'm posting from a hotel.)

Several inches of ice covered everything. Every other tree in this city is split down the middle and laying in the road. Trees collapsed on power lines all over the place. I have never seen anything like this. ~700,000 people were without power originally, and now it's down to about 500,000.

Luckily, FEMA is here. They're passing out bottles of water, as if we couldn't eat the snow.

I'm sorry to hear that. Glad to hear you're doing all right!

Dang. That's rough. I ask this from ignorance, but how long do ice storms last? Are they like rain or snow storms?

If it makes you feel any better, I have 8 inches of snow in my yard and your heating bill will be a lot lower than mine. My wife has now set the thermostat to "hell" for the winter. ;)

We don't normally get ice storms like this. Trees that are ~60 years old were completely toppled. It's the worst destruction I've ever seen.

It just lasted a day or so, but the ice was so think and heavy that it literally devastated the city. I don't know how it happened. I just woke up in the morning, and everything was covered in ice. For example, the ice was so thick over the grass that you could walk on it as if you were walking on a frozen pond, without it cracking. And the shape of the ice followed the contours of blades of grass. Same goes for pine trees. You had ice covering little groups of pine needles. When I woke up and saw the ice, I thought: "This is gorgeous." But within 24 hours, everything collapsed. A forty foot pine tree went down in our yard--completely uprooted.

But they've got power restored at the mall--and in the rich neighborhoods.

Phew! I was hoping Babs was okay.

The electric company is focused on the priority customers. Babies 'R' Us, McDonald's, and Ross Dress for Less were up in no time.

shouldn't this thread be renamed "ice storm in state from hell"?

Message from BarbaraG:

"Thanks to those of you that mailed to check on the Gordons. Excepting the fact the kids have been home from school all week (no power at the schools) and are pretty bored, we're fine. Only lost power for two hours. That they got our power back on so fast is clearly an indication that we're in a way way classier neighborhood than Sooner, or perhaps just that we live on the same grid as the new hospital."



Message from SoonerCoug:

Why didn't anyone check on me? Is it because I'm a male, unattractive, or both?

I'm going to be selfish here. Keep it over there.

Now I'm going to be unselfish. If you can make it to Memphis, you have a place to stay. We are Volunteers here in Tennessee.

Wow.

It sounds like an ice storm can make things look beautiful. Then again, the snow covering a mountain is beautiful just before the avalanche is released.

Winter storms in Sicily were amazing. Heavy rainfall that can last upwards of 24+ hours; gale force winds; I remember the first one I experienced in Palermo. We lived just on the outskirts of the city toward the beach areas and the morning after a storm had been going on all night washed two small fishing dinghies in the square less than 1km from our apartment - and the square was a good 200m from the sea where the dinghies were docked.

Glad to hear you're ok.