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View Full Version : Kentucky under "state of emergency"


luv4chance
02-02-2009, 06:49 AM
Well, I haven't been on here for almost about a week now b/c the storm that hit Madisonville, KY Monday night, took out our entire town of power.

Monday night I went home expecting to be out of power for a few days. I still don't have power where I live. In the morning, it'll be a week. My husband is a lineman for Kentucky Utilities. Madisonville is slowly coming back up but some places outside of Madisonville can expect to wait up to 4 weeks b4 all the power is restored. The ice storm that hit is the worse known disaster to hit Kentucky in history. The trees are stripped of their limbs. The trees look like sticks; it looks like a tornado took the tops off all the trees.

Tuesday morning we were w/o power but I was staying warm by w/ 30 or so candles lite in my bedroom. The dogs were in the bed w/ me and I was home by myself. I still had a phone line so I was able to call & check on people; stayed on the phone for a pretty good while. Then the 2nd round of ice hit and that took out all the power in Madisonville; all the phone lines and all the cell phone lines. I had no contact w/ anybody for all day Wednesday; wasn't sure if my daughter was Ok; if my Mom & Dad & Brother were Ok just did alot of praying. I had no contact w/ my husband; 911 was down; everything was out. Power poles were broke in half; telephone poles were broke in half; power lines were everywhere hanging, laying in the roads, etc. Of all people to come check in me, my EX-husband showed up w/ a can of kerosene around 5pm. Shortly after he showed up, my daughter & her fiance pulled in. (thank God, my husband bought me a kerosene heater Monday night. I didn't know how to use it, so my neighbor showed up & gave me a crash course on a kerosene heater)

Thursday I ventured out and went to my Moms. Everyone was Ok; I had to travel 30 miles south to get gasoline for my truck; I had to travel another 30 miles to find kerosene for my heater. I went to SAMs whole sale in Clarksville, TN to stock up on supplies.

It was a mess and it still is. I'm at work today so I don't know when I'll be able to get back on here again. I have pictures that is amazing. Once I get power restored at home, I will upload them here.

And the kicker.----- it was 63 degrees yesterday. I took advantage of the weather & pulled limbs and logs off my electric fence. Oh by the way, my electric fence is destroyed; my chain link fence is destroyed; 2 panels of my round pen is bent; the food in my refrigerator and freezer is ruined. Anyway, what got the limbs off the fence that I cud lift myself. The other huge limbs, I put the saddle on Chance, wrapped a rope around the saddle seat & pommel, attacked the rope to the huge limbs and made Chance pull them off the fence. I lead him away pulling w/ limbs; of course, he's never been "driven" before but I made a "work horse" out of him yesterday. His job isn't finished. I still have plenty of limbs for him to pull but I was running out of day light, so I had to generically fix the fence as best as I cud before it got dark.

I was proud of my boy.

JackieB
02-02-2009, 06:56 AM
Yay to Chance for helping out! Sorry you've had to endure this hardship. I did see on CNN that the entire State of Kentucky was a mess due to the ice storm and I was hoping that our forumers there were coping OK.

vicklynn
02-02-2009, 07:10 AM
Way to go Chance!! I sure hope you get power back soon. Stay safe.

WashingtonBay
02-02-2009, 08:07 AM
Glad you could finally check in.... I haven't heard a lot about this storm! Early on in OK and MO, but I thought it had passed!

Yay for Chance in turning into a work horse. When I moved here there was a lot of work to do - land to clear, by hand because I didn't have a tractor, and I put Bay to work too, used my circingle to help him carry buckets with all the tools in, and he'd have to stand by me and not get himself all caught up in the rope. Was good for him. And used him a couple of time to pull heavy things, like a part of an old wood stove I found out there.

Ranger44
02-02-2009, 12:55 PM
Wow! Good luck with the comeback. I've been through a nasty ice storm before but obviously nowhere near as large a scale as this. I hope things get back to normal as quickly as possible.

luv4chance
02-02-2009, 03:22 PM
My husband has been working 16 hour days for the past week. :0(

There was 605,000 people in the state of KY w/o power. There are about 75% of people still in Madisonville that doesn't have power. Power is being restored but being restored slowly.

On the brighter side, my chain link fence is destroyed, my electric fence is destroyed but I'm hoping by the time insurance pays to replace all that, I will have a much NICER electric fence (would love to have FLEX FENCE) and maybe enough money for a run-in shed.

I found a generator today. My boss is coming to my house tonight when we get off work to hook it up for me. God love him.

lovesfortune
02-02-2009, 05:34 PM
Stay safe. Glad to hear you are alright. Sending prayers your way.

mtnmollie
02-02-2009, 05:51 PM
Yep- geeze. I read about it yesterday; from Blue Ridge News on AP.

http://mybrctv.com/news/read.php?id=16749113&ps=1011&srce=news_class&action=1&lang=en&_LT=HOME_USNWU00L1_UNEWS

Army National Guard, swept through the state distributing food and water, removing fallen trees, providing security and checking houses in hard-to-reach areas. They brought food to Henry Mudd, among others, who said he has had nine family members staying in his powerless apartment,...

http://mybrctv.com/news/read.php?id=16749865&ps=1011&srce=news_class&action=2&lang=en&_LT=HOME_USNWU00L2_UNEWS

Gypsy Rose
02-02-2009, 09:47 PM
Holy cow! Glad to know you're safe! I can't believe the crazy weather we've all been having this winter. I hope things get back to some state of normalcy for you soon.

mare
02-03-2009, 04:19 AM
Wow. I can't imagine being in town without power. Seems like that would be very difficult. My sympathies to everyone effected.

luv4chance
02-05-2009, 12:54 PM
We still don't have power. My husband didn't get home last nite until 1am. He was up & gone at 6am this morning. The City of Madisonville is slowly being restored w/ power but there are still several hundred people w/o power. Just about everyone outside of the City limits (me included) still don't have power & we don't know when we'll get power. There are 1,000's of power poles just broke in 1/2.... tops of the power poles are hanging just by the mess of wires that are mangled up in the air.

We are going to experience 40-60 degree weather within the next few days.

Our local newspaper has posted a few pics

http://www.the-messenger.com/shared-content/gallery/?galleryid=5&gallery_page=0&album_page=0&albumid=7&mediaid=51

hit NEXT in the bottom right hand corner to view all 38 pics...

BelleRox
02-08-2009, 12:30 PM
It's still a mess in Kentucky. I live in Danville, which was where the worst of the storm hit. A bunch of places here still don't have power, my house and a few on my street don't have power. We lost it on monday the 25, so we've almost been out for 2 weeks.

Remali
02-08-2009, 12:42 PM
I can't imagine being without power for that long. When we've had some nasty storms and tornadoes go thru here we've maybe been without power for a few days....but not as long as you have down there. That has to be terrible. I hope all people and all animals are being taken care of in the remote areas, I can't imagine how tough it must be. Gosh, and it is going to take that long to restore power, wow. I imagine a lot of power poles are down so that makes things even worse. They have shown it on the national News a few times, but they didn't really report on it as being as bad as it really is, I don't the News is doing that great of a job reporting about it, glad you updated us! Stay safe!

luv4chance
02-10-2009, 02:24 PM
It's been 2 weeks today.. Still no power @ home.

I loved watching Li'l House on the Prairie but I'm really getting tired of living like Laura Engalls.

With the weather being warm, it's not been so bad. But when it's extremely cold, like in the teens, it's horrible. But now it's raining here in Madisonville and we're suppose to have severe storms tomorrow. I told my coworkers "Man I hope my power doesn't go out."

All you can do is laugh and joke about it. But it sure wud be nice if I had power again.

My husband has worked 2 weeks straight...16-18 hour days. He is so tired. He's going ON CALL next Monday and that's going to be a nightmare too.

I have got my insurance claim started on my chain link fence and my electric fence plus my food loss. Once I get the computer up & runing at home, I'll post some pictures of the ice storm. The ice on the trees was beautiful...but it was a disaster. My entire chain link fence is destroyed in the back of my property. The electric fence is ruined. The chain link fence was up when we bought the house. Once this is over, my husband is able to do some work around the house, we're checking on putting up a white split rail fence. We're going to still put electric rope on top of the first rail. This will keep them from leaning over the fence and will also keep my mare from cribbing in it. We're also going to run an electric rope under the bottom rail to keep the dogs from going under the fence, getting into the horse lot.

offgridgirl
02-10-2009, 02:35 PM
Wild weather this winter!! Glad you are safe and warm.;)

Cat
02-10-2009, 03:42 PM
Hold on to your hats again. They say the storms coming tomorrow could knock out power again, especially as limbs already loosened from the ice strom are then blown down by the high wind. They also said don't be surprised to see up-rooted trees with the combo of high wind and super wet soil. Fun, fun.

luv4chance
02-10-2009, 03:45 PM
They say the storms coming tomorrow could knock out power again,


:hysterical:

I don't have ANY power to knock out!!! Guess, I can look on the bright side!

Seriously, I don't want anymore downed trees. My yard is already a flipping mess.

Cat
02-10-2009, 04:39 PM
I'm waiting for the big tree in my pasture to get up-rooted. It was split a few years back and I have a feeling it won't take much to uproot it completely.

I'm sorry to hear you still don't have electricity. At least the last couple days have been warm for you.