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falldowngobump

scary ice storm

falldowngobump
15 years ago

It's been almost three weeks since the ice storm hit my area and I just got my power back on today. This has been the most stressful thing since my MIL moved in with us. The temps were down in the teens and lower at night and the only heat we had was the fireplace. When it's that cold it didn't do much to warm us. (better than nothing, a lot of people didn't even have that) No water, no lights, no heat, no phone or cell service. It was so cold in the house my MIL's glucometer wouldn't even turn on.

I was terrified for her. By day three she was so cold she couldn't walk. We put a roll away bed in the living room near the fireplace so we could keep her as warm as possible. We heated soup and water on the fireplace. I anticipated the storm so I had lots of bottled water on hand and filled the bathtubs and every container and bucket with water so we could at least flush the toilets. By friday I was outside scooping up snow and ice into buckets so it could melt and we could continue to have something to flush with. My daughter had a tree through the roof of her house from the falling trees and made it to my house. It took her over an hour to drive 4 miles. They had to keep stopping to pull trees and huge limbs for the roadway. Power lines were down every where and on my road 5 power poles were just snapped in half. This has been a real mess.

Her body temp must have dropped cause she got really confused and started to yell for me thinking I was hanging her upsidedown. I havent been that scared in a while.

Freezing weather, no heat,little water and incontinence is very difficult. By day 5 of the storm the roads were cleared to at least one lane and my daughter and I loaded my MIL in the car and headed for Georgia. My SIL lives in Florida and that the half way point between our houses. We had to get her somewhere warm and safe. A 5 hour trip took us 7. We had to stop and pull limbs from the roadway.

I am so glad were were able to get her somewhere, I was so relieved I just cried.

So the power is now back on after 21 days, the house is a wreck and so am I.

How in the world do you prepare for something this massive?

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