THE BIG ICE STORM

If you watch the news you know about the big ice storms that made it’s way across the country Our area was one of the hardest hit.  Our drive back from Arizona was suppose to take two days – it ended up taking three instead.  The second day that usually takes approx. 10 hrs turned out to be approx. 16 1/2 hrs and we still did not make it home – we spent the night in Russelville Arkansas.

The next day we decided to brave the roads and head up hwy. 7.  Instead of a 1 hr and 15 min drive it took 4 hrs.

When we arrived home the power was gone.  435 poles were reported snapped or broken and our entire electric region was out of power.  Other surrounding towns also were out of power.

We are happy to report that our power was restored yesterday morning.  So we put away the generator and took a hot shower.

Below are photos that will give you an idea of what it was like: The first photo of the Jetta was after we had FINALLY made it past Oklahoma City (we sat with out moving for an hr on I-40) to get gas – I think we had actually passed Shawnee. The second photo was after we decided to stop in Russelville (AR) for the night.

We followed this county road crew up hwy. 7 or else we would have never made it home this route. It was still raining and trees were all over the road and still falling as they worked. We purchase a chainsaw before we headed up the hwy – we didn’t need to use it but Barry did help drag branches out of the way. They also had a backhoe they would push the big logs out of the way with.

Some power and phone lines were so low the big trucks found it hard to get by. The boom truck lifted the lines so they could pass – it still was a tight squeeze.

This is the ranch road when we first turned onto it. Glenn had cut his way down during the ice storm the day before.

Barry and Chad (neighbor) starting on the ranch road.

Now for the pretty pictures. There was some beauty to be found in this crazy storm mother nature threw at us.