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We are forecast for 1/2 to 1 inch of ice followed by 2 to 3 inches of snow. Let's hope we don't get that much ice. Several years ago we had an ice storm that just devastated so many trees in this area. My folks were without power for several days. Following this storm we are supposed to experience some very cold temps. Thank goodness my parents bought a generator. The rain is freezing on the trees as I type although the roads are still ice free. Wish us luck.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
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punwit, where are you? We're bracing for the same thing. Good thing we cut down those limbs over the power lines. This will be a good test for the rest of the hundred year old house, though I'm kinda hoping that all five trees will come down directly on the house. We have good insurance, though the only minor sucky thing about it would the last weeks worth of work taking (literally) a ton of lath and plaster out of the dining room and rewiring it (in an intelligent way) and putting in insulation (yes, it's true, with lath and plaster they don't use insulation) and putting up drywall. This three day (tops) has taken us 6 days so far and we have just put up the first two sheets of drywall. And I'm not sure hubby is going to live through all the sheets.
I went to the store today (got a $12 pre-lit Christmas tree at the grocery store) and have the car all wrapped up so we might be able to get into it by Thursday. We already have icicles accumulating on the eaves and branches and the ground is getting icy.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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As my dad always says, "Ice belongs in a glass surrounded by rum." Get some boat drinks, put on some Buffett, and pretend it's not that cold.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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He's in Olathe or something Kayla--same storm.
My mom said that at this point the roads are just wet, although ice is building up on just about every other surface. She was able to drive the 20 miles home without any trouble, and they'd stocked up, grocery wise, so no worries for them there. They're prepared to just hang out at home for a week or so if necessary.
Back in the 70s we had a massive ice storm--inches of ice, if I recall--that downed powerlines all over NE KS. We didn't have power for two full weeks. Given a habit of stocking up on food, a walled in but uninsulated porch that was able to stand in as a deepfreeze, a wood stove providing heat and a propane tank providing gas for our cooking needs, though, we were fine. I thought that it was a blast, as I recall.
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Kayla, I'm in Ottawa, I'm guessing roughly 30 to 45 minutes south of you. You haven't ever said exactly where you live but I got the idea that you were in a smaller town north of Lawrence.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
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East. But yeah. You're really close. I bet I knew that and just forgot. Have I asked you that a lot? My memory is an interesting thing. But trust me, I never forget the stupid things my husband says. ($250. $300 tops. Meanwhile, $1,300 later. . . All I wanted to do was take down the wall paper. I swear, if I ever hear, "As long as we're at it, we might as well. . ." ever again, I might scream. Hey, wanna come help? I'll feed you. )
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Kayla, did you know that I am a painter as well as a drywaller? Work has been pretty slow but I'm not sure today is a good day to take off overland.
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If we ever get started? Did you have something int there about starting a business? Eudora would be a good place to do it. There seems to be more and more houses every time I see it.
And we've decided to stop for today. Maybe till the weekend. My husband can no longer feel several of his fingers and would prefer to live a while longer. I'm thinking he should either go back to work tomorrow or sit on his butt and relax. God knows he's worked really hard the last 6 days, as have I and we both need a rest. I'm not used to this manual labor thing. And when you haul a ton of stuff out of the house and into a truck, you have to unload a ton of stuff out of the truck. And I have the receipt! $25 a ton at the dump and we paid $24.91 and that doesn't include all the lath boards we kept for my husband's Christmas present (boxwood stove.)
Do you know that it is nearly impossible to fix a hundred year old ceiling? We tried over the weekend by sistering the joists and using lag bolts, but it just sank again. Yesterday, we took them off, used construction glue and three screws every foot and kept it jacked up overnight, but when we dropped the jack today, it dropped back to 92 1/2. Not the 93 we were aiming for, but better than the 91 1/2 we started with. I think that's why we are having such trouble with our hands. Too much drilling and screwing over our heads. At least we'll have a light in the dining room now.
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No I've been in business for about 10 years. We are waiting on a builder to get going on a new subdivision in Eudora.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Ice Storms in Arkansas were pretty bad sometimes, but the coolest thing was that you'd look at the pine trees and see each individual pine needle encased in ice. It was beautiful.
It also made the trees fall down under the weight of all that ice...
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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sarcasticmuppet, we have that right now. All our trees are covered with ice.
I remember something like this happening when I lived in St. Louis. I lived in a subdivision, and as soon as you came out of the subdivision and turned left, there was this really sharp curve that is as full of trees as it could possibly be and in the morning, the sun hitting all those trees covered with all that ice was positively the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It's like a work of art.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Oh, and I forgot! It sounds like it's "sanding" outside! Seriously, we work with a lot of sand and it sounds like God is shaking sand over us. The trees are covered with ice and are pretty, and as long as none of them fall over, they should be beautiful in the morning. Provided, of course, they aren't covered with the 2 - 4 inches of snow they are predicting.
But when you stand on the porch, it sounds like there is sand falling out of the sky. It's so cool.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I have limbs that are normally 12 feet off the ground that are now less than 3 feet off the ground. But man, are they pretty. I can't wait till morning to try and get some pictures. If they are still standing, that is. Or course, even if they come down, I'll probably still take pictures.
They've already canceled school in Lawrence, but no word from our town yet. Personally, I can't believe that Lawrence has already canceled. It used to be that they never canceled school, but it seems like lately, they cancel it at the drop of the hat. I'm sure it will be canceled here too, but at least they make the pretense of waiting to see what the conditions are like in the morning.
I've noticed that some of the TV stations are a bit fuzzy. One in Topeka and one in KC in particular. Apparently, not all channels on the digital cable box are actually digital. I remember some cable guy saying something about that, but they are only local and between 3 and 9, so.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Yeah, ABC was fuzzier than usual tonight, but I wasn't watching the game. The limbs are drooping down, but since I don't have a standard measurement for dry trees, I can't say how much. Local TV reports show just about every school in the KC area has cancelled for tomorrow.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I was thinking that NBC in Topeka was off and earlier I noticed KCMO in Kansas City. But now that you mention it, when I flipped over to ABC in Topeka, all I get is snow! Good thing we get two of each major network. I hate it when there is a storm in KC or Topeka and they feel the need to break in with irrelevant weather information. It's nice to be able to flip to the other network channel and continue watching what I want.
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I'm not using cable TV, just an antenna. I'm close enough to downtown that picking up the major stations is easy. ABC (KMBC9) is definitely fuzzier than normal.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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We had a really bad ice storm a couple years ago that had all the trees covered in a thick casing of ice, looked like armor.
I live just outside of Detroit in the suburbs. We're expecting I think 5 inches tonight. But compared to the several feet of snow they got in Nevada, anything seems nice to me.
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I went outside for a midnight de-icing run. I have work tomorrow morning (haha) and I figure this will make things easier. There's about 1/8" to 1/4" inch of ice all over the car, depending on the location. Rain is still coming down, and it took me 15 minutes to scrape all the windows.
Oh yeah, I did notice some tree limbs hanging a few feet lower than before.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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We're getting the same storm in OKC and we're sending your way, Punwit. We're supposed to have freezing rain for another couple of hours tonight and some snow for tomorrow.
You folks stay safe going to and from work tomorrow.
Posts: 701 | Registered: Jul 1999
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Well, we only had one limb come down and it fell rather nicely on the lawn between the tree and the light post in the yard, so no damage. So far anyway. The ice is still coming down and snow is still on the way. My husband is actually trying to go to work, though he'll probably be home early because the service guys will not be able to do much today (they change air filters that are mostly outside on the tops of roofs.)
School ended up being canceled last night around midnight (our time, 1 am Hatrack time.)
I'm hoping there's a break between the ice and the snow so the sun can come out for a few minutes so I can take pictures.
I hear that about 30,000 people in KCK are powerless, but so far, no problems here.
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I don't think we got as much ice as you did Kayla. We've got maybe 1/2 inch of ice and probably 2 inches of sleet. I did have to pour hot water on my truck door handle to be able to open the door and I had to kick, rattle, and shake the latch on the fence to get out of the yard.
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Power still up. Precipitation coming down lightly, still. I'm off to brave the ice. Money beckons. Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I'm glad you're all surviving the ice well!
We're feeling pretty happy for our garage today, too. Although, Tom was grumbling that he wanted to move to a condo in downtown Madison after the commute.
Today's one of those days you wish you worked from home, although I bet we'll be snowed in tomorrow if we get the 6-9 inches they're predicting, if only because the daycare will close.
Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Actually, it's most convenient, because I'm crunching down on writing, and I can focus here better. "Fruits of my labors before 9am" and all. Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Okay, so I chickened out and didn't go to work today because of the sleet and ice on the roads. The temperatures are dropping and they're saying that everything that is wet on the roads (and there is a lot of wet right now) will be freezing within the next hour or so. Hubby is staying home with me, too.
I may get a write-up at work for this, but even still, it's not worth going out and being part of one of the dozens of accidents that have happened over the past hour and a half. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol came on and said that if you've been in an accident with no injury, report it, and they'll get to you when they can. The OKC police dept. pretty much is saying the same thing.
As the sleet falls...
Posts: 701 | Registered: Jul 1999
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I'm very angry at Moore Public Schools now. Ice has covered the roads, everything that can be closed pretty much has, and Moore Public Schools stays open. Its like you have to blow down half the town before the district will even consider closing.
Normally, I don't really care if MPS closes or not. I don't dislike school, at least not so much that I pray the school closes everytime it gets near to 32 degrees, but when I'm stuck at home, unable to get to the school, and the district is still open, I get ticked off. My mom had to look for a parking space in the complex that didn't have a puddle so the car wouldn't freeze to the ground. I couldn't step outside for anything while she was at the store for fear the front door would freeze behind me. The morning news was extended for a couple of hours to cover the damage and closing because of the ice.
And now I am missing the first day of the semester (something I have hoped never to do) because the school district is too stubborn to close!
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Kwea, I still live in Madison, in the same apartment with Dave. I did, however, finish residency, and I now work as a research fellow for the university. I really, really like the person I work under, and I'm learning so much. Very healthy place.
I needed that after residency -- I was pretty bottomed out. Much better now, and looking forward to being productive. I'm working on a review of the literature for the primary care physician regarding alcohol misuse in adolescents (screening, brief intervention, referral, longer-term treatment outcomes).
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Some of you may have seen some of the pictures of my house when we moved in. If not, here is a picture of the front yard and what it normally looks like (check out the lower right hand corner. This is what the branches look like today, taken from the side of the tree. Also, we cut off the two lowest branches on that tree to begin with.
Notice the large "before" tree here on the right between the two windows. See how high up the lowest branches are? Look at them here.
Limb that fell between the tree and the lamp post, along with othervarious debris.
Pretty,pretty - ice. (had to use a hyphen or it looked like one picture.)
This is what the ceiling looked like after I took the tiles off. Yes, the lath and plaster was actually a home improvement. That green board you can see through the lath and plaster is the original ceiling. This is what it looked like without the ceiling and plaster but still with the lath boards on the walls. Now, I just need to finish the room and I'll post the make over pictures.
Some cool things we found. . . Square nails and porcelin wire insulators. You can see them in the second dining room picture. One can be seen on kind of leftish center. It looks like it's holding up a wire. And the long white things over to the right are like tubes that the wire runs through. Ooh, and a big drill bit. I have no idea what it was doing in the ceiling, but my husband was thrilled.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Been off Hatrack, internet-less, phone-less and everything since Tuesday here due to the Ice Storm. Judging by Kayla's photos -- they didn't get it nearly as bad up in northern Kansas as we did down here in Southern Kansas. I will post photos when I get them developed.
Ice storm hit Tuesday morning (4th) and I went home from work before noon because home had already called to say power was out. Now, being rural, power out for us means no lights, no warmth (furnace has electric thermostat & blower) and no water, because we have an electric water pump on a private well). Tried to drain the pipes as well as I could Tuesday night to prevent pipe damage, but couldn't do much because the door to the lowest water outlet was already froze up.
Our power is still off -- it will probably be next week before they even begin on it in our remote area. That means I'm sleeping on my sister's living room floor for the last three nights (which means no sleep, really). This is my first day back at work. My sister has DSL internet, but it isn't working either, and the power at her house has fluctuated off and on a lot -- luckily she has a wood burning stove, although we have about used up all the dry firewood. This means we are living with her family (4) and my household (5) in one house, which so far has worked surprisingly well -- mainly because school has been cancelled all week for the kiddos, so we haven't all had to share the bathroom at the same time. While I'm at my sister's, however, my cell phone is out of range of any towers. So my contact with anyone has been greatly limited.
To say my tree damage was extensive is the understatement of the year. I have 75 year old trees that now look like they are just solitary lightning rods. I will take us easily into summer to get all the debris cleaned up.
We make at least 3 trips a day out to the house from my sister's (about 8 miles), to bring fresh water to the animals (we have to haul it in, because everything at the farm is frozen, including inside the house), feed the animals, gather eggs, check mail, etc. We haven't even begun to pick up debris yet -- it is all still coated in ice, and will be much easier after the ice melts off, which is finally supposed to start happening today and tomorrow.
Just north of my house there are six power poles broke in half. Just south of my house, the electric line makes its "great span" across the Arkansas River -- and although I haven't driven down the pasture road to check on it, I seriously doubt that large of a span made it through this ice storm without breakage there as well. I have not even seen an electric truck out attempting to fix this yet (although I did see them out surveying damage). We will be low priority due to them getting the more heavily populated areas first.
Please be thinking of us. It is going to take us a long time to recover from this.
My closest neighbors, who are a couple in their late 70s or so, -- we had to arrange for an ambulance to go get them and bring them into a local nursing home for warmth and survival. They were just going to stay in their house and he is bedridden. While they are at the center, we have been going by and taking care of her cats and dogs as well.
On the UP side (always need to look at the positives) Since we had experienced a microburst storm a couple years ago that also damage these same trees -- at that time we had many of them trimmed back away from the house, so we had no damage directly to my house, or the electric line going to my house. We have another power line that goes to our water pump, and there were threatening limbs heavy with ice on it, and I went out that and started trimming by hand to relieve some of the load and it seems to have saved that line as well.
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