We had a potentially significant possible winter weather event, which was certainly full of potential. The forecast switched this weekend to show our county getting basically rain, or possibly a trace of ice on bridges and overpasses. It was President's Day, which meant that Madison was home from school anyway - and this may have been a good thing. It may have also been a good thing that there was no ballet because of this holiday. The reason became apparent when Daddy went out on the front porch to take a photo or two of the frozen ice on the trees around us. And promptly started slipping all over the place. If it was only 4:00 or so, and I was slipping on the front porch of my house, then surely this must be happening a lot more around here. And sure enough, it was. Suddenly, frantic forecasters were adjusting their warning zones - the frigid temperatures had slipped further southward than anticipated, and several counties were ambushed with an ice storm like nothing we've seen in years.
This won't necessarily go down in history as the the biggest, but it may be one of the most destructive we've had. The problem with this storm was not the roads, but rather the trees. They just couldn't take it. Thousands and thousands were without power last night, including Ye-Ye and Nana. Our power went out once, but came back on. Still, it frequently flickered. We each had our flashlights at the ready, along with candles. It turned out our neighborhood was spared the massive power outages that would go on. To let you know how bad these power outages are - as of this writing (three days later), Nana and Ye-Ye finally got their power (and heat) back three days later.
The sounds were all around us in the neighborhood: the cracking of trees that just couldn't take the additional burden of ice. In our back yard, ginormous pine trees weighted down sort of bent our way, their trunks now looking like the neck of an ancient sauropod shifting this way and that. The cracking and falling sounds that came from the darkness later on would be the thing that we'd remember from this point on. You have no idea what fell or where, or how close. Would it hit the house? Would it hit a power line?
It turns out we lost a lot of trees in the night. The neighborhood park lost several, and throughout our neighborhood you could see all kinds of branches that just couldn't take the added weight.
We were able to watch a movie tonight. Madison wanted to watch "Brave" again, so we went there once more (only losing power once). We talked to Nana and Ye-Ye, who were doing fine so long as they had a fire in the fireplace. And we were pretty thankful tonight. All throughout the evening, the reports came in on social media networks about the extensive damage in Forsyth and Dawson counties. Hall County too. A lot of prayers were going up tonight for protection from these falling trees.
This won't necessarily go down in history as the the biggest, but it may be one of the most destructive we've had. The problem with this storm was not the roads, but rather the trees. They just couldn't take it. Thousands and thousands were without power last night, including Ye-Ye and Nana. Our power went out once, but came back on. Still, it frequently flickered. We each had our flashlights at the ready, along with candles. It turned out our neighborhood was spared the massive power outages that would go on. To let you know how bad these power outages are - as of this writing (three days later), Nana and Ye-Ye finally got their power (and heat) back three days later.
The sounds were all around us in the neighborhood: the cracking of trees that just couldn't take the additional burden of ice. In our back yard, ginormous pine trees weighted down sort of bent our way, their trunks now looking like the neck of an ancient sauropod shifting this way and that. The cracking and falling sounds that came from the darkness later on would be the thing that we'd remember from this point on. You have no idea what fell or where, or how close. Would it hit the house? Would it hit a power line?
It turns out we lost a lot of trees in the night. The neighborhood park lost several, and throughout our neighborhood you could see all kinds of branches that just couldn't take the added weight.
We were able to watch a movie tonight. Madison wanted to watch "Brave" again, so we went there once more (only losing power once). We talked to Nana and Ye-Ye, who were doing fine so long as they had a fire in the fireplace. And we were pretty thankful tonight. All throughout the evening, the reports came in on social media networks about the extensive damage in Forsyth and Dawson counties. Hall County too. A lot of prayers were going up tonight for protection from these falling trees.
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