Ice storms suck.
Simply suck.
My area, western Kentucky, was devastated by a winter storm that started Monday, January 26th and lasted thru Wednesday, January 28th.
Several inches of ice, followed by several inches of snow.
Power lines down, power poles down, trees down, no electricity, no heat, no cellphones, no landlines, etc.
Many tens of thousands, including me, have no electricity, no heat, no water, etc. in their homes and businesses.
My family and I are holed up in the office I use in my offline career.
This is day 5 and we’re not expecting to have heat and electicity for up to three weeks at our house.
We feel fortunate to have a place to go with hot water and electricity, even if the floors are very hard to sleep on here at the office. We have an electric skillet and a griddle. No showers or tubs.
There are over 125 utility crew workers here in my hometown from other states. We very much appreciate their willingness to leave their families to come and help our families.
The local utility companies, Owensboro Municipal Utilities, Kenergy ( the one I have service with ), Kentucky Utilities and others are working night and day, in very brutal conditions, to restore power, so we can start the months it will take to clean up the downed trees, power lines and over 2000 power poles.
Bear with me while we dig out and I’ll try to find time to keep dishing out simplenomics.
If you have a warm bed to tuck your children into tonite, hug ‘em and say a prayer for us.
Peace.
EDIT: 7:30 PM CST Saturday – After a day of looking everywhere, I’ve gathered a propane heater, a kerosene heater and an 8000 watt generator, so we can now go back to our house and rough it there, which will be much, much better.
Lost all the food in the freezer and fridge, but that’s a small price to pay.
I have two different ISP’s at home, LiquidGrid.com is down and Owensboro Municipal Utilities is up and running, so I can download my emails and keep you updated.
Gotta try to go out in the dark and cold to find more extension cords.
More tomorrow.
EDIT: Tuesday, February 3rd – The great people at Kenergy have been able to restore our electricity and we’re feeling blessed !
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Mike,
I am so sorry to hear this. I wish you and your family a very speedy return to normal. Thank goodness for all those hardworking folks trying to get your utilities back up and running.
Hang in there.
Regards,
Kelly
Thanks Kelly!
There’s a chance we may get a propane heater and a generator today (Saturday), so it may well become a magnificent day
As you might expect, it also may snow another 6-8 inches on Monday
Either way, we’ll make it.
Good luck with that!
I know from being a couple hundred miles to your East, we’ll all be sweltering and wondering what the fuss was about, sooner than we like.
Man, that sucks. Hang in there.
Didn’t you get the same thing with the hurricane in the fall?
Hey Brian – yep, but it wasn’t 8 degrees like it was last night !
The hurricane winds tore down 200 power poles. This ice took down over 2000.
I just went over to my house which is out of the city limits. There’s no sign of a work crew on that highway, so I assume those of us who live in the ‘burbs will be a bit longer waiting for the crews to be able to reach us, which makes sense, priority wise.
Thanks for the thoughts guys. Keep the comments coming and if you have any winter storm stories to share, feel free to do so in the comments. Maybe it’ll make me laugh, which would be nice
Mike, I am so sorry to hear about this, but at least you have a place to camp out.
If it gets too cold, just close your eyes and think back to hanging out at your home in Pensacola a few years back! I bet you feel warmer already.
Debbi
Hey Debbi,
After all the hurricanes you’ve been thru, you know about roughing it, but I’ll bet it rarely gets to 9 degrees in Florida
Thanks for the well wishes !
I lived through one of those. It’s not anything like a picnic. I’m thinking of you. Hoping that folks are finding ways to keep the workers happy so they keep working get things finished.
Can’t wait until this winter is over. Wishing you home soon.
Thanks Liz !
Great of you to drop by and leave some good wishes. Those are what keep spirits up in times that are less than ideal.
I know you Chicagoans have seen plenty of bad weather and are a tough breed of survivors.
We saw a utility worker today and have hope that they’ll come back tomorrow and bring power with them.
We hope
Hey Mike,
Went through one of those bad boys 11 years ago in Montreal. Was the only one in my family who DIDN’T lose power. Felt pretty lucky until everyone else showed up for shelter!! Nothing makes you aware of your dependance on something like having it ripped away. Keep the faith. Hard to imagine it now i am sure, but one day this will just be a story to tell! Looking forward to see your creative turn of this lesson into a business lesson. Hang in there.
Hey Jamie !
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a challenge
As soon as I clean up this mess and get some order restored, I’ll start to work on doing just that.
I happen to have 8 people in the house, even though we don’t have power, we do have a kerosene heater and some food, which is more than some have.
Best of luck to you, Mike. When I lived in Louisville for 18 months all we got was snow. But I’ve survived many an ice storm, with only one of them being as severe as yours (and I think, from media reports, your’s tops mine).
Regards,
Glenn
Thanks for the thoughts Glenn.
We’ve been declared a “disaster” and may get some FEMA people here by the time we’ve finished cleaning up … oh, in say, 3 months.
As you may have seen, we Kentuckians are pretty self-sufficient and we’ll help each other and get it done with little or no government intervention, as it should be.