[Note: we got our power back late Sunday afternoon, but here were some of my thoughts from last night Also, this AM it was right at 32 when we woke up and we were getting pretty discouraged.]
I am writing this as we're over 48 hrs without power, and it is cold in the house. It's 42 degrees and falling, and we can even see our breath. It's not even 9 pm but it feels like midnight, and the only light we have is that cast by our fireplace, a candle, a flashlight, and our monitors as we type snuggled up on the couch.
Thursday night, the worst ice storm I've seen maybe ever came through this area. We of course didn't know it was that bad, as it started out innocuously enough as people came home from work. Rain, misting, not too cold out. The weather forecast had spoken of a major ice storm yet no one was that concerned. It was just starting to slick up around 7 or 8, and as the evening wore on, there were reports from our friends via Twitter that their power was flickering. We too had a flicker before I headed to sleep, but the power stayed on and I hoped for the best.
Somewhere in the middle of the night I heard the unmistakeable click click of the power switching on our fish tank to the back up supply. We'd gotten this to tide us over for the thunderstorms that roll through in the summer, and we had just one powerhead (water circulator) and the heater attached, enough to keep life going for a few hours. I remember dazed thinking that I hoped the power would go back on before the UPS died. And throughout the night, many CRRRACK, CRRRRRACK, THUD sounds as limbs in the small stand of trees opposite the driveway were falling. A few hours later, we both were awakened by a BEEP BEEP and then silence. Aaron rolled over and asked me if I knew what that was, and I said, I think it was the UPS turning off. It was a night of resting but not much sleep. When Aaron's alarm went off the next morning we thought things were fine. For about a minute.
Aaron got up first on Friday, and quickly reported that the power was out. Ok, we thought, we'll find out if it should be back on in a few hours. Of course, we've talked about a generator for just this type of situation, but the list of things to do for the house and farm is long, and we have just been prioritizing around what we can do. The generator hadn't come to top of the list yet. Anyway, after we let our companies know we were having issues Aaron went to see what he could find out. Outside there was glistening ice everywhere, and at least our small view looked mystical and even serene, if you didn't focus on the number of limbs that were close to their breaking points. But wait a moment and tune into the creaking and snapping, the raining down of ice from upper limbs, and that peaceful shining world seemed downright dangerous.
Frankly, it was, as we found out. Aaron came back to report that at least 200,000 people were without power in NH and Massachusetts, there were limbs everywhere, and many road obstacles. We found out the governors had called states of emergency and it was nearly 1 million people affected across at least seven states. Two days later, this hasn't much changed. So we settled into the realization this was not going to be quick, and we began to make plans. Did we have what we needed? How would we take care of the animals? One concern was our saltwater tank which is intended to operate at 78 degrees. It had already been off for maybe seven hours after the UPS died, and at the time ambient temperatures were mid-50s. We decided to move the fish to temporary quarters at a home with power, but even there they can't stay for much longer. The rest of the tank (snails, corals) have probably slowly been dying as the water temperatures have plunged. This will almost certainly be a casualty of the ice storm, and we'll be starting over. We won't know until we have power back just how bad it is.
The chickens lost the run mesh top, as it looked like pearls of ice formed around each mesh junction spot. The netting simply tore away from the staples and in some cases, itself, with the weight of the ice. We rolled out all the largest pieces (too heavy to carry) and will repair it when we are in a better position to.
Other than that, the irony is the outside critters have maybe had it easier than the inside ones. The chickens themselves have been running around as if nothing is different, and the alpacas after getting past the spookiness of the ice have been out in the paddocks as normal. While we have not been able to keep their water from freezing, we are finding ways to replace the water, so things are more or less ok for them.
Our cats have spent most of the time huddling up with us, and we have spent most of the time huddling with them. The four of us together are much warmer. The first night, with temperatures in the 50s, it seemed almost like a fun game - especially since we still naively? had hope that we'd get power back tomorrow. Tonight, it's set in that we aren't likely to have power for another several days. But that's what it becomes, you hope to get power back the next day, or the day after that... We spent the evening playing Scrabble and reading, and jumped into the bed after we let the fire go out for the night. By this morning, we had lost 10 degrees of heat we had no way to regain. As we set out to survey (my first excursion since the storm) I began to see just what we'd been hearing about.
Tree limbs everywhere. While the roads were by now cleared and passable, what I was seeing was simply astounding. It seemed every other pole had wires dangling perilously close to the ground, on the ground, or sagging under the weight of a branch suspended in mid-air. There are pieces of trees in things, on things, through things, around things - everywhere they aren't supposed to be. There were homemade caution signs, cones set out, even shovels used to flag potential dangers. In places the lines had pieces of coil (like where it attaches to a pole) just hanging. The whole system is one precarious puzzle - move one line, change the tension on another so it springs loose. Tie off one end, only to find six others nearby. I am not familiar with the intricacies of these things, but you don't have to know much to see it is an "oh @#$" situation, one that the utility companies will need weeks to fully sort out. And I am told in our area we're lucky since for the most part the poles themselves are still standing. In other parts where this storm hit, the poles have fallen or snapped, meaning entire sections of infrastructure need to be put in again. It's not a system with one big problem, it's a system with thousands of unique ones ranging from tiny to colossal. We did see crews today - per news reports they've come in from all over. But the three crews we saw today would easily have months ahead, so I'm hoping that they'll be reinforcements as crews in other areas make prgress. Even in places with power, the lines are loose and damaged. It's like nothing I've ever seen.
On top of the actual line issues, there is a lot of water flooding as the ground's too frozen for it to run off, or ice, as it's frozen onto surfaces. We had several detours just trying to get to a short list of places nearby (one of which was our relatives where we could take a hot shower and check on our fish).
So that is the reality of the situation out there. We are lucky to know people who do have power and with whom we can stay if needed. But we're also worried about our home and animals, so leaving doesn't really seem like a first option. The longer this goes on, however, the more necessary it may become. We're out of dishes as of today (we will have to start washing just one or two to use which is fine, but that water is COLD). The house is almost as cold as it is outside (differential of maybe 15-20 degrees now). We are running all our devices on battery and have to recharge them soon. And the cats are just as cold as we are - they have definitely figured out we're not running as normal here. We have a chest freezer full of meat we must keep from thawing (so far not an issue).
How ARE we coping with it?
We have used a lot of our outdoors equipment. Backpacking stove (outside of course) to heat water for tea, soups, dehydrated foods. Headlamps for getting around. Instant heating pads for warmth (I have a full box), though oddly in home usage is not depicted on the label. Camp food meals for quick easy cook food. Grill for items we can salvage out of the fridge or freezer. Layers of clothing, including long underwear base layers. Lots of blankets. Multiday cooler for saving items from the fridge. Battery powered flashlights. Candles for some extra light in the evening. Firewood from several sources. Non perishables we keep in bulk anyway.
And we're trying to maintain both a sense of humor, and purpose in what we're doing.
We're down to the upper 3Os in the bedrooms now.
Getting the power back tomorrow would be really good.
. Anyway, just a very different experience. I'm almost loathe to admit this, but I think I enjoyed seeing him at Austin City Limits better, it was just much shorter. Maybe we should just try to catch him in Austin proper. Although, we are taping the ACL showing on PBS this week.