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View Full Version : We made it through the storm!! We're back!!!


CrazyManda
02-03-2009, 12:52 PM
Phew....the ice storm hit us Monday night and we lost power Tuesday afternoon and just got it back on today. Let me tell ya....I thought I was going to snap. We still don't have water, lines are frozen but atleast we have electricity back. Trying to read or cook or do anything at all by candlelight and kerosene lantern is cool and neat..for about the first day.:rolleyes:
FEMA showed up a few days ago and was giving out gallons of water so that helped and my parents had water so we went there one time to shower and do dishes. We had a LOT of damage in our area, and many are still without power. School is closed indefinitely now, we have a backyard and back area of the horse pen full of uprooted trees, limbs and branches. We have power lines down on the farm and we did have a lot down all over the roads....posts for the power lines have snapped in half across town. The town has a 7pm curfew. The gas stations last Thursday were packed....lines backed up for a quarter of a mile and we had to wait in line for nearly 2 hours..ran out of gas IN the road and Auren had to push us in. Remember there was ice everywhere and power kept going out every few minutes.
The chicken houses have been going on generators for 7 days straight now and that's the only thing keeping them going. We had 2 break down that we rushed around to make sure the chickens didn't die of suffocation. Very VERY stressful week it's been.
We have some fence down in a couple places and we haven't been in our pine forest yet..but it sounded like we have lots and lots of trees and limbs down:(
During the worst of it we had to bring the horses up and keep them in the pen. I was scared they wouldn't drink and end up colicking and I had no idea at the time how much fence was down and didn't wnat them getting out. So I blanketed them...Chanti didn't grow a thick enough coat and she shivered almost non stop and she stopped drinking for a while.
The stores here were absolutely nuts...a lot of them had to close and you couldn't find kerosene, candles or any type of batteries. The neighborhood pulled together..I heard all the time on the radio of families who had power would invite strangers to their home so they could have a shower, or water,etc. I have no idea what's happening with the black filly or the 17 hh QH gelding that we were going to check into. We had no way of contacting the people.

CrazyManda
02-03-2009, 04:55 PM
Icicles coming off one of the chicken houses

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a336/gingersnaps2002/Winter%202009/DSC02867.jpg


Wednesday morning..after the majority of the ice hit us.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a336/gingersnaps2002/Winter%202009/DSC02874.jpg

Our front yard
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a336/gingersnaps2002/Winter%202009/DSC02875.jpg

Toward the back of the house

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a336/gingersnaps2002/Winter%202009/DSC02878.jpg

Backyard where a tree was uprooted

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a336/gingersnaps2002/Winter%202009/DSC02879.jpg


What our roads looke dlike
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a336/gingersnaps2002/Winter%202009/DSC02892.jpg



The field between the chicken houses

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a336/gingersnaps2002/Winter%202009/DSC02887.jpg


Bubba our Redbone wondering when this white crap is ever going to leave:p

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a336/gingersnaps2002/Winter%202009/DSC02885.jpg

Last one.....our pup Sammy Bo....his first winter and he was loving it. He'd run along and shovel the snow with his nose:p

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a336/gingersnaps2002/Winter%202009/DSC02886.jpg

Sorry they are so big.

mare
02-03-2009, 05:01 PM
I'm glad things are getting better. Y'all have my sympathy having to deal with that.

qh trail rider
02-03-2009, 06:55 PM
We had a major ice storm here 2 yrs ago, so I know what you are going through. We were without power at our house for a looooong 12 days. Our trees still look pretty rough and there are still limbs hanging down from the tree tops. We heat and cook with propane, so did stay warm and was able to cook, but no electricity means no well. We lost a lot of food, too. It is amazing how many ice chests a full refrigerator can fill up. We did finally hook up the well pump to a generator after a week, TG. Because the pump uses so much power, we turned off all the other electric appliances except a light, when we took our showers. My son lives in town, so his power was only off for a couple of days. I did my laundry at his house. I was really glad that I didn't have kids still at home with lots of dirty clothes. For me, one of the worse things was the hassle of flushing the stool. It takes a lot of water to do that and when you are having to haul your water in, you only flush the stool when you absolutely have to. Our motto was yellow, let it settle....brown, take it down. Maybe that is gross, but sometimes you do what you have to do. We turned our horses out in the field where there was a pond, but that meant chopping a hole in the ice everyday.

Glad that you have your power back on and I feel for you having all of the mess of downed trees and limbs to clean up. I think we hauled 6 or 7 big trailer loads of brush out of our yard. I know that someday we will probably have another ice storm, but I hope it is a long time from now. Going through that makes you really pay attention to the weather forecast. I have filled water jugs twice this winter when the forecast was calling for freezing rain. Right now I still have 2 jugs sitting in my kitchen after last weeks storm. We have lucked out so far and kept our power on this year. I am sure it was partly due to the fact that mother nature naturely trimmed our trees 2 yrs ago and the power companies had to replace a lot of older electric poles.

vicklynn
02-03-2009, 07:16 PM
Im with qh trail rider. We had our worst storm here in SW MO in 07, but have delt with 4 since, just not quite as bad. One almost as bad, but still, nothing compared.
I am glad you have your power back on, and glad that you have FEMA in the area. I hope you get things cleared up soon. It may take a couple yrs, but dont sweat it, do what needs done now.
As you drive around here, you still see trees down from the 07 storm, but they are not an issue. So dont fret the small stuff, let it be. Just do the needs be for now, get the small stuff some other day, or yr.
((HUGS))

HaveFaith
02-03-2009, 07:18 PM
Glad you're back and everyone is OK. It is rough so you learn how tough you are and what you can survive if you have to.
We had one here when my kids were 3 and 4 no power/water for a week. We cooked on the wood heater and my FIL brought us jugs of water and kerosene for extra heat.
I hope you all don't have too rough a time cleaning it all up. Hope you get the fences fixed so the horses can't get out.

CrazyManda
02-03-2009, 10:15 PM
Thanks guys..we definitely have a lot of cleanup to do. They said this was Arkansas' worst ice storm since 1937:eek:. I'm just lucky none of the horses were injured...though I did lose my bala shark. I thought I was going to lose all my goldfish because they had no oxygen but they made it. So far I'd have to say Obama is a better president already. When katrina hit it seemed like help was never going to come for those people and we had FEMA and national guard troops in within a few days.
It was so bad here that people had to have supplies brought in from towns as far away as 2 hours. They'd have in-laws or some other relations meet them with the supplies. This definitely made me appreciate having electricity. I was about to go bonkers. What I missed most was light to cook and read by...and water. That'll be nice to get back. For some people here it could be almost 2 months before they get power but the crews are working night and day and I have nothing but respect for them because it was so dangerous here but they worked in freezing cold and they did the best they could to get power back.