Ice/Snow Storm 2009 with Pictures

I was in one of the affected areas in Western Kentucky when the ice hit. We lost power last Wed. morning at about 2:30am. I was waiting for Jeremy to get home. Cell phone service was knocked out already and he usually calls before leaving the mines. That night I tried to sleep but couldn't. He finally got home after trying to get home for 4 hrs. It normally takes him 30 to 45 mins. He said almost every possible way home was blocked by a down tree or down power lines. We had about 2 in of ice on everything. People here in the county say this is the worst they have ever seen in our history. We have been in this house for going on 9 years and this is the longest we lost power. The longest before this was just a few hours. No biggie.

Better picture of the ice on a bush

Jeremy walked in the door and was just taking his coat off and the lights went out. Well, we figured it would be back up when we got up in the morning. I moved the kids to our bed so that they could stay warm and wouldn't wake up in complete darkness. My neighbor came over in the morning and told us that since the power was still out that we could stay over there. He has gas wall units. I made the necessary phone calls checking on my family. Everyone was out of power. Jeremy kept sleeping and I didn't want to make the decision on my own about where we were going to stay. My house is all electric, I do have gas heat, but it's central so it needs power to work. The kids never complained about the house being cold, actually my daughter kept taking off her socks and pants. They're hot natured so it probably felt really good to them. I, on the other hand, am cold natured. I had on a couple of layers of clothes and was snuggled under a blanket and still freezing. I finally had enough waiting. Told Jeremy we were going to Jeff's house(neighbor). I got the kids dressed in warm clothes and we went next door.

I thought this was a pretty picture of the ice on a small tree.

Now from here on the days get kind of mixed together. I think all day Wedensday the kids just played in the playroom while us adults were still thinking they may get power back up soon. Jeff has a wonderful boss so he went to his work and got a bunch of LED lights and batteries to power them so we'd have light and wouldn't have to bother with candles too much. We both emptied our refridgerators and put everything in thick canvas bags that we also put snow/ice in to keep things cold. We put everything on Jeff's back porch. We have 4 snakes that unfortunately we couldn't do anything with them. They had to stay behind. We brought over Dusty's crate so he would have a good place to sleep, checked on our neighbors, and just settled in. We have one grocery store and they were running by generator. Enough to run 2 registers and the front row of lights. They lost a lot out of their freezers and the meat was going. Jeff figured out a way to cook on his fireplace so that night we had soup for supper. We went to bed pretty early because everyone was pretty tired from the day's work.

Our make shift refridgerators

Our make shift grill


The next morning we woke up and new problem, no water. Our city's back up generators for the water station stopped working. No water at all in our city. We tried to go to the local grocery store to get some but they were out. Jeff remembered that his work uses those big coolers so he got a couple of those. We brought in snow and ice and put it in the tub to melt so we could flush the toilet. We had 7 people in the house. By this time we were wanting some outside communication. The roads were still a mess and stuff was still down everywhere. Jeff said he was lucky he could get to the store and to his work. You had to drive under and over all kinds of power lines to get anywhere. Oddly enough, my home phone line still worked so the guys hooked up a line from our box to Jeff's house and I brought my corded phone over. We got our first news reports from Jeff's mom who was in Florida. We decided to try to use an invertor so that we could at least get online from time to time to see news. Jeremy was switching car batteries out of his jeep so we would get online from that. We brought over our DSL modem to use since Jeff's cable was out. We set the invertor and a recharged battery and the kids got to see 2/3rds of a movie. My dad brought over some water in coolers and other containers just to give us more water. We played cards that night by candle light and then went to bed.

What we used to get on the computer and run one light bulb.

Friday morning, still no water, but Jeff had perfected the cooking over the fireplace and we were able to have scrambled eggs and country ham for breakfast. Tasted so good to have a hot meal. One of our other neighbors is an elderly woman, a real country woman. She refused to leave her house. The only heat she had was her gas fireplace. She refused my offers of water so she could use her toilet. She said that she would just use a bucket. Bless her heart. I offered her hot meals but she didn't want anything, but I couldn't force her to take it. So, I prayed for her. We loaded the kids up to go restock supplies. Jeff and his kids went to a friends house in the next town (who never lost power) and got a shower. Jeremy and I went to his mom's house to see how they were doing. Ended up leaving Baby girl there. She wanted to stay. We went to Walmart and they were closed. First time since they have been opened they had closed, since being open 24hrs. We went to a mom and pop grocery store, that is expensive, but ah well. You gotta do what you gotta do. We pretty much bought 2 and 4 of everything we picked up. Met up with Jeff in town, and he told us not to go to McDonald's because they were out of burgers. The only thing they had left was chicken and fish. We had planned of getting McDonald's for the kids so they'd have something a little different then soup of something easy. We ended up getting Dairy Queen.

Got back to the house and we started busting up the ice on the back porch because it was a danger. The ramp was so slick you'd slide right down it. When you have a rambuctous lab puppy that is not a pretty picture. lol That night the guys set out looking for generators. No one we called had one and we called as far north as Marion, Illinois to around Nashville, Tennessee. Then Jeremy's dad called and said that he had heard that someone in Evansville was going to get 200 generators. My dad came and brought more water and he told us that all the generators were going to Home Depot. So we called and bingo! They were going to stay open all night. Jeremy called his dad back and told him not to get one. That we would be alright without one, because we can't afford to buy one. Jeff had already called his mom and asked if he could put one on her credit card. So he had plans of going to buy one. I wanted to go with him because I wanted to see what everything else looked like outside our county. Call me nosey, I don't care. Jeremy's mom called that night and said that they had power. Jeremy couldn't stand it anymore so him and Lil' Red packed up and went to her house, after telling me it was ok to stay and go with Jeff in the morning.

Breaking the ice on the back porch/ramp. It was thick and hard to bust up. Had to use an axe as well to bust it up.

Saturday morning, I got up and got ready to go to Evansville. Helped him get his kids together and loaded the kids in the truck and we took off. The fog was unbelievable. It was supposed to be warm then but with the fog so thick the sun couldn't break through and it was still cold. The farther north we went the better it got. My town looked like a tornado with through. My county looks it.

I'm giving my props to Home Depot. They were really nice and helpful. I talked to one of the employees who had been up for 24 hrs and another one lost power at his dorms for a night. They were really busy and some were running on very little(or no) sleep and would smile right back at you. So, Home Depot on the West Side in Evansville has my business. They even took the time to answer the kids' questions and make them feel included and special. After we picked it up and was on our way back. I finally got service on my cell so I called Jeremy and let him know we were on the way back. The plan was for Jeff to drop me off as Jeremy's mom's so I could get a shower. He said that his dad was on his way to our house with a generator at the moment. We asked him not to put himself in that position. We were fine. I guess he just needed to help in some way.

It still took a little while for my house to heat back up. They plugged it into the house so we could run the central heat and the snake tanks. By this point we didn't know if they had made it. We were hoping they just went into hibernation. Jeff was running conviences. So we went over there to watch tv or get online. We cooked on our stove that night by flashlight. I was robbing peter to pay paul when it came to electricity. I even unplugged the fridge. That night the local volunteer fire department went door to door checking on people. They were the only ones out. During the day town you could hear people moving around but at night everyone was inside hunkering down again. Got to sleep in my own bed Saturday night. I LOVED that. The water problem still wasn't fixed. We had a trickle but definately not enough to get a shower or a bath.

We were able to watch the superbowl. Thankfully it was on NBC because that was the only channel we could get with the rabbit ears. Monday morning I went back over to Jeff's so he could go to work. So I watched kids while he went to work and Jeremy slept because he had to go back to work that night. With 4 kids being together so much I was happily surprised that there was hardly any fighting. When Jeff got home, he turned the faucet on...and we had GOOD WATER PRESSURE! So he hooked up his generator to his water heater to warm it up. I saw an utility truck with a guy in the bucket working on one of the transformers in my alley. Yay!! May get power back soon!

Best sight in the world! I could have just kissed this guy! :-)

They decided to go ahead and have basketball practice so I took Lil Red there. Other moms there were talking about how it was nice to be in a place with lights and not candles, and just a little bit of heat. I drove back into my town (I live in the middle of town), and it was so eerie to see it so dark. The whole time I've lived here I've never seen it without lights. It looked like a ghost town. I called Jeremy's stepdad and told him that there were no lights on here. No street lights and the lights you could see in windows, you couldn't tell if they generator or real power. I went to take Dusty out one last time before bed and walked outside and didn't need my flashlight. The street lights were on. We had power!!!! My sister and I were doing a dance. lol I called my step FIL back and told him the lights were on. We still couldn't take a shower because Jeremy was at work and I didn't know how to move it off or move it to warm the water heater so I went back to Jeff's to get a shower.

Tuesday and Wedensday I was busy cleaning refridgerators. I figured this would be a good time to clean them since everything that was left in there had to be thrown out anyway. I was still watching Jeff's kids so I just cleaned his too, just to give me something to do. We have to go this weekend and restock. The kids went back to school this morning. We still have some people in the county without power but the schools have power again. The officals were thinking it would be good to go back to school so the kids could get good hot meals and sit in warm classrooms.

As I write this there is still people without power, which means some are without heat. Say a prayer for all those still without power, I will be, and have been. Our situation was great compared to countless others! We were not in dire straights once this whole time, but many others were and those were the ones that I prayed hard for every night before I closed my eyes to sleep.

Icicles with my neighbor's cable line hanging in front of my back door.

More icicles

Power line down in the road in front of our neighbors house.


Ice on the branches...look how thick no wonder it snapped power poles.

Baby girl playing in the snow

Lil Red helping picking up tree limbs/branches for our neighbors.

Took this on Saturday morning in my town

This was the next town over.



I don't know if this church had any damage but I do know they had just finished remodeling not that long ago.

Ice on the stop light.

Entrance to my street

Another one of the entrance to my street, you have to drive over a power line to get in.
When I pull out of my street onto main street this is what I see. See the pole snapped?

One of neighbors'.

All the branches.

Ice sheets in my lattice. My carport.

Snapped pole

You can just see the weight of the ice. This was on Friday, I think.

A really pretty picture I was able to get on the way back to Jeff's Friday.

Another one

Thanks for looking!