The Big Freeze of '09

The Big Freeze. Wow, what an experience ... and we are not out of it yet. As I write, I can hear a continual tinkle of ice as it rains, non-stop, from the trees. On Tuesday and Wednesday, it rained non-stop and became ice on the trees. Today it is raining ice from the trees. The sun is out and the temperature is above freezing. The ground is littered with ice fragments in the shapes of the stems from whence they came. Sometimes a huge shower of ice will fall, but always there is the tinkle and sprinkle of ice. It's pretty cool, but you have to watch out where you are watching from (so to speak) or you'll get a facefull.



Ozark Electric says two-thirds of its customers are without power. I think SWEPCO is about the same, as most of Fayetteville-Springdale is out. Our power came back on (kind of) around 9:00 am on Thursday (Jan 29th). I say "kind of" because most of the wires on our electrical box on the side of our house were ripped out when the utility pole snapped off and the feed wire sagged to about 6 ft off the ground across the street and our driveway. Now that it is "hot" it is very dangerous and we are trying to warn kids that like to walk the street to play with the dogs. We are waiting for Ozark Electric to put in a new pole, but they have some other stuff going on, I guess! We have random outlets around the house that work, like the refridgerator, but not the stove; the microwave, but not the garbage disposal; lamps on tables, but not over-head lights, etc. But we are happy to have something.


It actually was kind of interesting living for a couple of days and nights with oil lamps and candles, and cooking on top of the heater. We actually cooked a pot of beans and a pot of soup on it. And heated water for French press coffee in the morning (Thanks, Laurel for the Sumatra Gayo from Stumptown Coffee). I read so much that I'm not sure I want to pay the cable bill anymore; it was kind of refreshing to not flip continually through all those dumb tv shows. (I don't know who is dumb and who is dumbest when I'm doing that!)



As you can see from the next photos, we have a lot of work ahead of us cleaning up the tree limbs. And so does everyone else between here and Louisville, KY. We drove into Fayetteville yesterday and saw whole trees uprooted--fallen over from the weight of the ice, with their roots above ground. I took a walk down O'Neal Lane on Tuesday afternoon and about every 15 to 20 seconds you heard what sounded like a rifle shot as another tree limb splintered and crashed to the ground somewhere. I love trees so much (although I rarely hug them), I could hardly stand it so I went back home. Also, since there were about five trees laying across our street, I decided I was not being too bright anyway. Occasionally, you saw the blue or green flash of another electrical transformer blowing in the distance. You can see why there was so much damage to utility lines and trees, look how thick the ice was on everything ...








































Here's a view of the driveway with electrical wires and cable down low. The next is looking back towards the house and the compost pile from the Dog Roundup Office (barn).

But as awful as it all was, it was beautiful at the same time, especially when the sun peaked out. The ice sparkled like diamonds as far as the eye could see. And if you looked carefully, at just the right angle, you could see colors. The ice acts as a prism (frozen water forms a crystal lattice and all..) and splits the bright sunlight into all the colors of the rainbow, one at a time. If you stare at a particular spot and move your head very slightly, you can see that spot change from bright red to orange to yellow to green and blue and so on. I tried to capture it with my camera--see if you can make it out on this cedar tree...there is a central spot that is brightest, but secondary spots of blue and green that were in focus with the human eye but out of focus with the camera.


















By Thursday, it had begun to melt (notice Atticus in the background) ...




Speaking of dogs, here are a couple of the one boarder we had during the worst of the storm, a standard poodle name Smith Wilson (both names are his, not his owners' last name). He was very bouncy as you can see when he plays with E.B.















The limited power that we had at first was off and on. On Friday, the utility pole that had snapped finally crashed all the way to the ground which further ripped the lines off the house and left the hot electric line about four feet off the ground across the street and driveway. This trapped all the neighbors who had to park at our house and scoot under the wire. Others were visiting their house and couldn't leave (as was Hayden). The Elkins police came with flashing lights to secure the situation. Finally, just before nightfall, they were able to get Ozarks Electric to cut the power and remove the line.


So today (Tuesday), after a week without power, a neighbor re-installed the panel and meter to the house so--after an electrician okays it--Ozark Electric can install a new pole and connect the line. A utility worker told me that it would probably be another week before that happens! In the meantime, the trailer/office and the DDR bunkhouse had power. We moved the kitchen (microwave, coffeemaker, food, utensils, etc.) to the trailer and "lived" there except for sleeping and showering.


Finally, on Friday--after 10 days--we got our power back! Everything seems so bright inside! We had gotten kind of use to the more intimate feel of the candles and oil lamps. So we're back on track after an interesting adventure. There is still a lot of cutting and dragging and burning to do outside. Later, I'll try to send a few pics of Fayetteville trees.