Ice and Snow!

We got some "snow days" from work! (Technically Ice Days, but I'm happy either way!)

I'm up here VERY close to this situation. I'm lucky in that the worst of this situation seems to start about ten miles north of my hometown. In the county where I live, there are still several thousand without power. (There are still hundreds of thousands without power in western Kentucky) Luckily, I never lost power at home (other than a few flickers), but nearby communities are disaster zones.

My one weather related disaster was smashing my car into a giant tree and telephone pole that ice had just brought down. And this was after the bad weather had ended and the street ice had melted. I had turned on an old city street at night, heading to the local post office. The street was completely black, no lights in any houses. I was thinking the power must be off and I was glancing from side to side at the homes when suddenly in my window was a very old, very LARGE tree which had split in two, falling completely across a wide street, bringing a telephone pole, electrical lines and cable with it. I slid into it with my brakes locked and did a number on the front of my car. It's pretty ugly, but driveable. C'est la vie. I'm looking at a couple of replacement vehicles right now on Ebay.

Around us though, there are counties where they may not have power for weeks. The next biggest town near us is pretty much totally black, and could be for two weeks. People have fled the area to stay in hotels both here and to the south of us.

In our town, we've seen incredible lines for gasoline, kerosene and supplies. State Police had to come out yesterday and announce that people couldn't sit on major roads in line for gas as they were a traffic hazard.

Murray State University (about 50 miles west of me) has been closed all week, as there is no power or water at the school.

Folks at the Cracker Barrel last night told me the two closest ones to them were closed for weeks because one had no power, and the other was under a boil water advisory.

Two of the people I work with had no power for several days and they live in town.

Biggest problem in getting things fixed is that there are LOTS of trucks here that can do the work, but the downed trees don't allow for the trucks to actually get to where they need to be.

At the CB last night, there were a LOT of electrical workers there. I talked to three different groups, from South Carolina, Alabama and Eastern Kentucky. All brought in to try and ease the workload.

Other than the car, my biggest problem this week was a couple of days where the cable was down, leaving me without TV, phone and internet for a short period. Compared to many, that is VERY small potatoes.