Worst Winter Storm in 20+ years!

Here is a picture of a transformer blowing today...

Fire and Ice:



www.thelostogle.com...

I thought I'd drop in and say that it's about 25 degrees in DFW right now. We are expecting about 1/2" of ice and have already had upwards of 120 weather-related crashes, including one Fed Ex plane that took off from here and then crashed a bit to the west (no fatalities).



[edit on 27-1-2009 by asmeone2]

We had a ice storm here I think 2 years ago and the power went out. The generator wouldnt start, I was out in the freezing rain from 11pm-12 taking it apart and I got it going. I think spraying some wd40 on the magnet on the flywheel should be done twice a year. The flywheel rusted to the ignition coil.

By providence, I still have power. I'm in Rogers, AR, a few blocks from a grocery store(Harps owned, "Price Cutter").
And a block and a half away from Dixieland Mall.
It's not good, power is out all over.
Less than half a mile away, no power.
And it is still sleeting, snow is on the way.
All day long, at intervals, I have heard trees, splitting with the weight of ice.

I have so forth, been blessed.
My apartment is all electric, including heat, I've been praying, much.

I know what to do if it gets worse, I am a former Civil War reenactor.
11th Mo, State Guard.

Bless everyone, and stay warm.
Jerky and bisquits for all!!!

Oh yeah, and back to Fallout 3!!!!!!!

I'm here in Rockcastle County Ky. About 60 miles south of Lexington.
The ice came through last night late. I got up at 4:30 this morning to check outside. The limbs of a big pine tree right out my kitchen door was almost touching the ground.

3 big limbs have broken off. One of them landed in the road and I had to go out and move it out of the road just for traffic to get thru.
There is a phone line down at my house, it was stretched across the road also.

I stepped outside and Whoa!! was it slick. I couldn't stand up even in the grass.
I let my dog out to potty and she was sliding on the sidewalk.

Me and my husband set out to take me to work, half way there he turned around. It was too bad.

Electric is out all around me, my sister-in-law hasn't had any since 2:00 today.
Right now it is raining but the ice is still on all the trees. But it seems to be melting slowly. There is lots of water on the road and I dread in the morning for fear that is gonna freeze. I am a freak when it comes to slick roads.
I panic severely.....

But Berea kentucky (madison county) is in horrible shape. I was told no one there has electric and that they have warning signs out everywhere..

Cell phone service here is just about out. Everybody is getting busy signals when trying to call someone. I hate winter!!! I am originally from Michigan so I shouldn't complain about kentucky too much. We don't get that much Ice. But still it sucks.
Have never posted pics before...hope this works.









[edit on 27-1-2009 by LiquidCrystalz]

mod edit to fix links

[edit on 28-1-2009 by DontTreadOnMe]

Originally posted by whitewave
I poked my head out the front door this morning and my face instantly froze.

I lost skin off of my thumb when it froze to the metal in my child's car seat latch over the weekend. That's cold.

We've been getting freezing rain all day. The roads have been clear, but trees are losing limbs limbs like crazy. Sounds like a war zone outside. Extreme Northeast Arkansas is losing power. I lost it at my place at about 8:00 pm. Fortunately I'm at work, and we are on emergency power.
Entergy says they won't have power back up until Sunday.
I can't believe I'll have to survive with not computer, no tv, and no music until SUNDAY! That means I'm going to have have conversations with my wife. We've been married 30 years. What's left to talk about?
Seriously, where is Obama when you need him. Fema needs to be in the field NOW, evaluating, organizing, and co-ordinating rescue and relief. This is just as much of a disaster as Katrina, and much more wide-spread.

Originally posted by cornblossom

Originally posted by Seekingmyself
alright I live in cincinnati and we got about 6 inches of snow last night/today but apparently this big ice storm is coming our way. Any advice for a girl who essentially lives on her own? I have to work tonight (a dinner shift) and have classes in the morning(university of cincinnati NEVER closes) I drive a dinky little 96 cavalier. I don't know how to prepare or with what. Thoughts?

As for going to work tonight, can you find someone to pick up your shift? If not, call your manager and ask if they even need you to come. It could be they're expecting business to be very slow and they might not need too much staff.

If you don't feel comfortable driving your vehicle in this weather, is there a coworker who lives near you who could swing by and pick you up and then give you a ride home?

If Cincy has public transportation, taking a bus might be an option.

As far as your classes in the morning, if you can't find someone to catch a ride with or you can't take a bus, you could always skip classes. I'm sure your professors would be understanding.

If you end up deciding to try to go to work/school in your car, here are some things to keep in mind before you go.

First, dress in several layers and bundle up real good, making sure to wear at least one hat and waterproof gloves if you have them. I was just outside for quite some time and was wearing a hoodie, a hat, and the hood of coat to keep my head warm.

Gloves are a must. When I was outside I saw a young woman getting ready to go to work at the hospital who was trying to clear her car of ice without any gloves at all. She didn't have an ice scraper either but was pretty creative because she was using a CD case to scrape her car. My husband helped her with our scraper, but if for some reason you don't have one, her CD case did fairly well.

De-Icer is awesome stuff that will help you get into your car if your door is stuck, and it also helps get the ice off.

Let your car warm up quite a bit though before you start trying to scrape. If you live alone, do you have a friend who lives near you that you could buddy up with? I wouldn't want to be outside by myself scraping my car. Two or more people together is better than being alone.

Ok, while the car is warming up, you're gonna need to dig your car out. My husband and I did that, not only for ourselves, but we also dug out that young lady going to work at the hospital, and we also dug out two other parking spots.

If you don't have a shovel, see if you can borrow one from someone. If you can't walk to a nearby store to buy one, then you're gonna need to be creative to get yourself dug out.

Last winter when my husband and I found ourselves in this situation, we used a large piece of sturdy plastic to move the snow. I can't remember what that plastic thing was, but I can tell you that even though it worked, it took a long time and it wasn't easy.

Good luck and be safe.

thanks for all of the advice!!!! i did end up going to work; though it was a big waste of time because I had two tables... (i work at the cheesecake factory by the way, and if you've ever been there you know they are always packed) it actually wasn't too bad getting there...much scarier going home. I like the idea of dressing in layers; I will definitley do that tomorrow if I venture out. Duke Energy is warning us that power outages are a big possibility so I'm considering running to the grocery store real quick to get whatever is needed. Ugh. Spring can't come sooner.

The green flashes and glowing in the sky is transformers blowing, I remember the sight and smell of electricity in the air well.
Be careful and watch for down lines and poles!!!!

The storm has passed us here in oklahoma, with just some minor flurries falling on and off now.

But it is nasty outside, the roads are horrible and even the malls were closed today.

We missed the worst of it though and after the ice storm that knocked out power for three weeks in december of 07 I am so glad.

I did manage to slip and hurt my hand and elbow on the ice last night. Note to self, if it is so slick the dogs fall down the stairs then it is too slick to try and walk one of them...DUH!
No school tomorrow.

Stay safe and warm everyone.

It's 1147pm my time, posting, cause i still can.
Crossing all my digits, I still have power(thank God), and no work tommorow.
I hope I can use vacation time to fill my lost time.
If not, that is where the rubber meets the road.
Bless you all, and stay snug.

Wow I cant believe the current conditions over there, rough, but sure makes for some interesting weather

PRES HGHT TEMP DWPT RELH MIXR DRCT SKNT THTA THTE THTV
hPa m C C % g/kg deg knot K K K

996.0 172 0.2 0.2 100 3.91 20 4 273.7 284.4 274.3
969.0 392 -1.5 -2.5 93 3.30 299 6 274.1 283.3 274.6
958.0 483 -1.3 -2.3 93 3.39 266 7 275.2 284.6 275.8
954.0 517 -0.5 -1.4 94 3.63 254 7 276.3 286.5 276.9
948.0 568 4.0 3.8 99 5.33 235 8 281.4 296.3 282.3
943.1 610 5.1 4.7 97 5.71 220 8 283.0 299.0 284.0
942.0 620 5.4 4.9 97 5.80 220 8 283.4 299.6 284.3
925.0 769 6.2 5.7 97 6.24 220 11 285.6 303.3 286.7
918.0 831 6.6 6.2 97 6.52 214 18 286.7 305.2 287.8
908.9 914 7.8 7.4 97 7.13 205 28 288.7 309.0 289.9
884.0 1145 11.0 10.6 97 9.16 216 38 294.3 320.9 296.0
876.2 1219 10.8 10.3 97 9.07 220 41 294.9 321.2 296.5
870.0 1278 10.6 10.1 97 8.99 221 42 295.3 321.4 296.9
850.0 1472 9.4 9.2 99 8.66 225 44 296.0 321.3 297.5
814.1 1829 7.1 7.0 99 7.77 230 45 297.2 320.1 298.6
797.0 2004 6.0 5.9 99 7.36 233 48 297.9 319.6 299.2

And all we got is here is thunderstorms,

Stay safe

[edit on 28/1/2009 by OzWeatherman]

Stuck my head out, just now.
Deathly quiet, no precipitation, just the sound of cracking wood.
All white, with the tint of. still functioning security lights.
Silent. cold, impending(place what you want here).
I'm never up this late.

I'm only 34, but in this limited time, I've only seen natures cold wrath once.
That was when I was 11.

Now her nature, when warm, that's another story.

reply to post by Greenize


Hehehehehe.. isn't mother nature fascinating?




Where i grew up... we got a 10 foot dump a couple times when i was a kid.. overnight.
imagine that.

Tried to post some pics - but the link didn't work.
I'll try again.
....
Nope. Still not working.







[edit on 28-1-2009 by spinkyboo]

thanks for all of the advice!!!! i did end up going to work; though it was a big waste of time because I had two tables... (i work at the cheesecake factory by the way, and if you've ever been there you know they are always packed) it actually wasn't too bad getting there...much scarier going home. I like the idea of dressing in layers; I will definitley do that tomorrow if I venture out. Duke Energy is warning us that power outages are a big possibility so I'm considering running to the grocery store real quick to get whatever is needed. Ugh. Spring can't come sooner.

To Seekingmyself:

I just tried to reply to you but lost electricity briefly. We keep losing power on and off, but just for seconds at a time.

Anyway, I'm glad you got to work safe and sound, but it's too bad you didn't have more tables so you could make some decent money to make it worth your while.

My husband and I also work at a restaurant...one that's usually always packed too. If we're open tomorrow (and I think we probably will be since we've only closed the restaurant one time in the past 13 years) I imagine we won't get much business either. It's possible though we'll be without power. We live about 2 miles from the restaurant, and many homes around us are without electricity.

I've been hearing on the news that thousands are without power, and it's likely many more homes and businesses will lose power as well. It's been freezing rain here non-stop all day, and all that ice, along with the 4-6 inches they're saying we're supposed to get starting in a few hours, is going to make the tree branches heavier, causing many of them to snap and fall off.

If you live near a grocery store and go to stock up your supplies, grab some candles if you don't have a big supply...just in case you lose electricity. If you have a fireplace, buy plenty of firewood. I hope you have extra blankets, but if you do lose electricity, definitely make sure you're dressed in layers indoors.

Make sure your cell phone and laptop (if you have one) batteries are charged up while you still have electricity.

Stay warm and be safe. And yeah...I'm with ya...spring can't come soon enough for me either!

Edited to try to fix (without success) the reply to/quote feature

[edit on 28-1-2009 by cornblossom]

[edit on 28-1-2009 by cornblossom]

My Prayers are with you and the rest of the Families that have to brave this storm. May the great Spirit assist and enlighten you.

So it might be a bit off topic but whilst you in the US are freezing your bits off, in Adelaide, Australia we've got 45.7 degrees... Celsius. That's 114 F.
Overnight temp didn't go below 31 C (88F) and we've a week of the same to look forward to.
It's hard to even contemplate ice and snow. (not that I've ever seen it)

The headline is a bit sensationalist don't you think?
In 1992 the tri-state area (OH< KY, WV) had a much worse winter storm... in fact it was a spring storm since it was in April... but nonetheless it was much worse as we had 3-4 feet of snow.

WOW!!!! Before I post this mornings pictures, let me send my prayers and thoughts to all of our members who, like my baby in western Kentucky, are without electricity in this icy and snowy mess. On our local news, it said Grayson County shelter was overflowing, without electricity and had run out of fuel. My entire state of Kentucky is in a state of emergency. Thank goodness my place of employment called the day off! That said, here comes the pictures of what I saw this morning, natures beauty!



Look at the weight pulling this branch down! And check out the three little birdies on it!



My sister's car from my balcony!!



Neighbor lady could not make it up the hill....EEK!



Beautiful snow!



I have to go get ready now, my co worker is coming over(he lives right up the road) and we are going sledding!!!! Stay safe and warm everyone!