Ice storm hits; more coming!

[mikeschn]

Hey guys, what happened to being prepared? Back many years ago I built and tested a bug out trailer. I even posted the pics here on the forum.

But today we got hit by an ice storm, and the power went out 6 times. Each time we got power back within a few minutes... but the folks on the other side of the street were not so fortunate. They've been without power since early this morning. What if that had been us? Where's our handy dandy bug out trailer with the forced air furnace? I've got to remedy that.

We also lost our cable connection this morning. That never came back. We been here all day without phone, cable TV or internet. Let me tell you, that feels strange. If we didn't have cell phones, I think it would be really difficult! (Yes, I am posting this with a cell phone!)

Here's a pic to give you a flavor...

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1387752511.888430.jpg (106.33 KiB) Viewed 1239 times

Mike...

[Gage]

And that's just another reason I live in Southern California.

[Bigwoods]

Looks like one of those rare Michigan bird dogs.. Yep red scarf and I think he is sitting on that branch... Take care Mike..

[rowerwet]

we got the lousy side of the storm, warm yucky weather, soft drizzle, no ice. between the woodstove and generator we are all set, but the only thing happening is a depressing shrinking of our snow cover. Good luck to everybody in the ice, hopefully the past few years around here taught them the importance of preparing...

[working on it]

My condolences: we experience that just about every year here, in lieu of snow, just ice. Though I was stranded at home a couple of weeks ago, for a weekend and one workday (partly by choice, to care for my animals, in case I couldn't return-the wife was in NYC), the power never went out, just glitched a few times (happens every summer too). I guess the authorities got too embarrassed on the national news by their poor handling of problems during the Ice Storm/Superbowl fiasco of 2011, and actually tried to help the common folk this time. Better, but not very good. It only took a week to de-ice most major bridges, and most power was restored in two or three days (as opposed to 8 days for a friend's house two years ago). With talk of historic climate change, and 100 year storms, and droughts followed by floods, you'd think the politicos would wise up. But, probably not. Well anyway, good luck to all in the path of this storm; we were fortunate to have this one pass us by.

[legojenn]

The Ottawa area seems to be slightly colder than along the St-Lawrence River and Lake Ontario so we dodged a bullet being up north enough that temperatures did not go above zero. It seems to have been a big storm going through the midwestern US to the Maritimes. Having lived through the 1998 ice storm, I don't wish that on anyone. Clearing nearly a foot of snow twice in as many days was enough. Thank Xenu for snowblowers.

[Fenlason]

We have had ice fall for much of the time since Friday.. it was supposed to have stopped this afternoon.. but yet it continues. There are approximately 85000 without power now.. and despite their steady work. the numbers are expected to climb during the night.

[Fenlason]

We lost our power earlier today for a bit.. I came home to find it back.. but it has done some serious flickers so far tonight. We heat with wood and solar so we are ok that way [although the solar isn't really working right now] We cook with propane so we are ok with that. I do have a generator so I can run the frig and freezers. Water is our biggest issue I guess… we do have some stockpiled.

[Fenlason]

One of our power companies just stated that they expect their outages to last until Friday… and they have a lot less outages than "our" company.

[rowerwet]

my employer has aircraft all over the state of ME, right now our plane in Waterville is stuck, 1" of ice on everything and no ability for the airport to clear it from the ramps and runway. Presque Isle is doing better than Waterville even though it is three hours further north. Gonna be an interesting morning tomorrow. We fly freight for Oops and this is cruch time.

[Fenlason]

my employer has aircraft all over the state of ME, right now our plane in Waterville is stuck, 1" of ice on everything and no ability for the airport to clear it from the ramps and runway. Presque Isle is doing better than Waterville even though it is three hours further north. Gonna be an interesting morning tomorrow. We fly freight for Oops and this is cruch time.

I am not far from the Watervillle Airport.. yeah things are not pretty here.. Further north they are staying all snow… and yeah I can't say I would want to be flying freight anywhere around here.. heck even driving it has to be getting dicy tonight.

[Shadow Catcher]

As typical the worst of it went North of us. I Took care of our piriodic power outages and bought a back up generator and wired in a new main power panel with a lock out when on generator. And we have not had a power outage since! Compass Rose has the Espar heater ready for use and the 2300W Kipor generator for it, which we have yet to use. It is however ready to bug out

[Micro469]

Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Started freezing rain on Saturday night, lost power at 3:00 A.M., and didn't come back until 1:30 today. Trees have 1" of ice on them, most trees have lost their tops and large branches, looks like a war zone. Our street was blocked by downed branches for most of Sunday.We cooked on a one burner butane stove and had a small butane infared heater to help ease the chill. Temp in the house was about 16* celcius for the most part. There is still large areas where people still don't have power, the street behind me is still out. At one time there were about 300,000 homes without power, now its down to about 60,000.
This is the worst storm I've seen in this area in the last 35 years..... the amount of damage to the trees is unbelievable.

[Gladtobehere]

Aurora, Ontario. No power for 36 hours. We made coffee and soup on the coleman. Had a couple of colman catalytic sport heaters to add a little extra warmth. I had enough LED flashlights and battery powered XMAS lights to see with.

My big fear now is the ice on the trees overhanging and resting on my residential power line. And many others on the street.

I sympathise with the many people of Toronto who will be in the datk for Christmas.

Good luck to everyone. Stay warm and Merry Christmas.

[Fenlason]

While this one isn't great here, we had a really bad one in 98. The ice was worse.. and it hit a wider area. We were without power for 11 days… we could not get our driveway for 11 days. [wires and trees] Downeast Maine lost the large power lines that feed their area.. tower after tower came down. They had to bring military ships in to generator power. In some places the forests were just destroyed. The scars are still here in places.