Sunday, February 16, 2014

Ice Storm 2014

I thought I would write a post about our recent ice storm this week. We here in the South get a lot of jokes about us being shut down every time a flake of snow drops but what people don't understand is that our road crews just aren't prepared for it and don't have the equipment to deal with any snow or ice so it does shut us down. Worse are the trees. Trees down here grow in clay so they have very shallow roots. They also are not used to any heavy snow and ice on them so when we do get snow and ice the branches break or the trees fall and we have massive power outages. I read that 700,000 people in Georgia lost power in this one--some of which, including my sister, do not have power still. Yesterday I read there were still 26,000 without power in Augusta, 11,000 in Evans and still 500 in Thomson where I live.
Anyway, we knew it was coming Wednesday. I had done a little shopping on Tuesday and was supposed to try to exchange a propane tank but it was pouring rain Tuesday and I took the chance that our propane would last. That was a mistake.
It started sleeting Wednesday morning.

The weather report said it was going to sleep for 15 hours in our area. I thought they were crazy but turns out they were right. The power went out Wednesday morning here for about an hour and a half. The temps were in the 30's but no big deal we lit the oven for heat and lit some candles. I had 100 candles stocked up (I made myself stop at 100 thinking I was getting ridiculous).

When the power came back on we were pleased and thought out "storm" wasn't all that bad but it continued to sleet all day. 

We stayed inside as everything was all icy.

Obviously, nobody was going up or down our ice slick of a road. Everything was normal until about 7:30 p.m. when the power went out again and didn't come back on. It was a cold night and we woke up in the morning to a temp of 52 degrees inside. We lit candles and several of the oil lamps (I had two containers lamp oil and a few extra wicks) and the oven. 
Phil went out with my coffee pot I have been saving for a couple years now, just for this occasion. It plugs into a cigarette lighter. He couldn't get any of the car doors open but luckily managed to get the truck door open. 
Unfortunately our little "Quick Brew" coffee maker didn't live up to it's name and took 45 minutes to produce half a pot of only warm coffee. We gave up on it and I boiled some water on the stove and poured it on the grounds in our regular coffee maker. 
The temperature got up to 64 degrees inside and then the propane ran out. It dropped to the low sixties, and I lit more and more candles and it stayed in the low 60's. Outside the sleet stopped and I took a few pictures. 

The plants around the pond were bulbs that had come up already. The paperwhites had even bloomed. 
Those are tulip bulbs sprouted around the fountain.
My poor johnny-jump-ups (violas). These did survive just fine however.

There was actually a pair of birds making a nest in this little bird house. I hope they changed their mind as these little ceramic ones are just for decoration as they get too hot in the spring for the birds. 


The sun did come out and the ice started melting pretty good. Phil got out on the road and chopped up the ice and added some salt I had bought until finally he felt he could get one of the vehicles out. This was about 3:30 in the afternoon. He walked up to the main road first though to take a look and see if the main road was clear because there was no sense in trying to get one of our vehicles off our dirt road if he couldn't go anywhere anyway. The main road looked good so he came back and got the truck and went to town to look for propane. Unfortunately, there was none to be found and the little store that usually fills our tank was closed as well. Instead he thought he would just buy us something to eat at one of the restaurants but found that the lines were so long that he would never get in. He came home without having bought anything. 
But we still had to cook supper. A while back I had been given a little tabletop grill for free at work. Phil got it out of the box and put it together. He then made a wood fire in it since we had no charcoal (that is my spoon wood by the way). 
And that is how we cooked supper. Afterwards I put a pot of wax on the grill to melt down and make more candles since we were going through them so fast trying to keep the house warm. I thought we were in for another cold night but the power popped back a little after 7:00 that night. It took a bit to get used to having it again. We left the heaters on all night just because the warmth felt SO GOOD!
Friday Phil was able to go get us a tank of propane at the little store down the street and the roads were completely clear so I could get out and go to my violin lesson and then got to town to do some shopping. There are small branches all over the yard that need to be cleaned up but this was the only large one that fell in our yard so we were very lucky.

Friday night we had the earthquake- 4.4.  Scared us half to death but didn't do any damage .We have never had an earthquake here in all the years I have lived here and we really didn't know at first if it had been one or not. Phil turned out the t.v. and I turned on facebook and we got the answer at about the same time. 

I hear there is a possibility for another winter storm next weekend. Phil and I ordered a small generator today. I hope it gets here before then. 


21 comments:

  1. I am so glad I never have to put up with that kind of weather.
    I guess there was a lesson learned with the coffee pot. Being prepared also includes testing the preparedness equipment before needing it. I like the use of the Smokey Joe for a cooking fire, that's just smart!

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    1. Well, I had gotten the coffee pot at the thrift store for $4 but it was still new and unopened and we just never had need to open it but at least I didn't spend a lot of money for it. If we hadn't had the little grill we would have just made a fire in the fire pit, same thing only more wood needed for the fire pit and the wood outside was wet with icicles so the little grill was a great help.

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  2. I think you probably learned a few more things about self-sufficiency, didn't you? :) Hope you are OK now!

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    1. I learned you can live with just candles and oil lamps but you really don't want to, lol.

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  3. Ice storms, regardless of where you live,are difficult. Many a 4 wheel drive vehicle driver up here in New England are overconfident, and end up off the road in an accident, or worse as a result. Having lived here all of my life, I am keen on emergency preparedness, something that came in handy this past year of so, as we weathered 3, separate, week long power outages. No power=no heat, no running water, no toilets. It is for those ocassions that I have the following:
    -a wood stove for supplemental heat and cooking
    -a gas grill,for cooking, heating water to bathe, eat
    -an extra tank of propane for my grill, always full, as a back up
    -a stock of firewood, kindling, homemade fire starters
    -a food pantry with quick cook items, and "emergency" things like boxed milk, cocoa, bottled water
    -plenty of batteries, candles
    -a hand crank radio/light/weatherban radio that allows me to also charge my cell phones
    -always a full tank of gas just before a storm
    --always $$ in case we need to get out of Dodge
    While I'd love a generator, I am currently renting, but will have one direct wired to my next home.

    I'd also suggest that you grab 2 bags of charcoal and make a fire pit, or to use on the mini grill you pictured.

    Glad you were able to muddle thru this uncommon disaster down South.
    HTH
    Carol in CT

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    1. Hi, I am from New England too. New Hampshire. Funny but all the time I lived in New Hampshire, I never remember the power going out in the winter for more than 2 1/2 hours and we always had a wood stove. I wish I could have one here. The charcoal is a good idea, I will pick some up and I am going to get the other propane tanks filled. We had plenty of food, candles, batteries, and lamp oil and I made sure I had money-not that it helped this time.
      The generator we got is just a small one, nothing direct wired but I am sure in a few years when we actually need it again, lol, we will be very glad to have it.

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    2. Another tip: you can line a wet/snow or ice covered pit with tin foil, then start a charcoal or wood fire over the dry surface. I should have also mentioned that I have 2 led camp lanterns for outages. I'd work in earnest to build up some firewood-deadfall from the storm would be perfect. Just be sure to place it on top of repurposed pallets and cover all sides/top with a tarp (I use 6 ml plastic bought on a roll at the big box store)
      HTH

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  4. Forgot to add: keep isopropyl alcohol on hand (Dollar store find)-great to pour over frozen locks and doorways in cars.

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    1. Wow, we always have alcohol but I didn't know it would do that!

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    2. Also, place flattened, cardboard boxes over car windshields of non garaged vehicles, and position wiper blades sticking straight up, away from windshield. Makes life easier later.
      Carol in CT
      CTonabudget.blogspot.com

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  5. Glad you made it through OK. It's a been a tough winter all around I think. Fortunately we've not lost power, just the will to shovel any more snow. Yet - we're supposed to get 3-6 more tomorrow - Yippee. Happy you made it through

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    1. I know there has been lots and lots of snow up north this year. Even with power that brings its own challenges. We'll just have to keep hoping spring gets here SOON!

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  6. My sister finally got power tonight. We also had a 3.2 aftershock around 3:30 today. We actually felt that one but thought it was something else.

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  7. Our power is so rock solid here at this place. So much better than in other houses I've been in. I hope your next storms are nearly so bad. I really hate ice storms. We used to get them a lot up here, but recently it has been more snow than ice, which is a good thing.

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  8. Hi Becky! That is so weird about the earthquakes! Hopefully there'll be no more of those! Your photos are so pretty! You captured the moment so well! Thankfully, we only got a couple inches of snow! Just enough for schools to be closed, then it all melted that morning! I hope this kind of weather doesn't come back for a very, long time! I've got tomato plants coming up under the grow lights! Of course I won't put them in the ground until April! It's just exciting to see them germinate! Thanks for sharing your winter-wonderland! Blessings from Bama!

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  9. Hi Becky good to hear from you. Sounds like you had plenty of supplies just in case. We have just had about 2 weeks of 120 degrees in the shade type temperatures in South Australia.

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  10. Hi Becky, I always enjoy your blog, but really that was a bit much to go through, especially the earthquake topping it off! It seems that Georgia has had it's share of strange weather. Hopefully Spring will soon be here. It is a good idea to get a generator, though. We have one in Florida in case of power outages during hurricanes, which I hope we never have again.

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  12. Hi Becky, welcome to my world. Glad you made it through unscathed. As far as heat is concerned, go on Craigslist and find a Kerosene heater, the tower type. They put out 30,000 to 60,000 BTU's and last about 11 hrs. on less than a gallon and you can cook and make coffee on them. Buy plumbers candles, one lasts 100 hrs. I am an authority in this stuff, lol.

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    1. John, we used to have a kerosene heater. Heated with it for a couple of years. The sad part is that my brother had offered us one a few weeks before the storm and we turned it down. We were quite happy when we finally didn't have to use one ourselves and didn't want to go back to using one. We sure wished we had taken it, lol. I have seen them several times in the thrift stores though, so might pick one up again when I get the chance.

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  13. Becky,
    It was something wasn't it? Our neighborhood in Col. Cty. was without power from Wed. morning until Saturday morning, we had gone to our farm in the country about an hour away so we could take care of the animals, de-ice their water and make sure if branches fell on fences we could repair and keep them in. The power stayed on at the farm so we felt very blessed. I had a kerosene heater and Mr. Buddy propane heater just in case though, and like you lots of candles as well as some battery lanterns. I hope your generator gets in soon. I have also heard the possibility of another ice storm, but not many people seem to have heard that. The first earthquake scared us half to death too, but we didn't feel the second one, I don't really know why. If we get a second ice storm I think it could be even worse with so many trees and branches already weakened from the first one. Glad y'all came through it okay!

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