The ice storm of 1/31/11 - 2/2/11
Monday night Jason and I headed out to Elder Beermans to find Jason a new interview outfit. (After losing 45 pounds last fall, the old interview suit is too big.) On the way there it started sprinkling and we knew the promised ice storm(s) had begun. I don't think the actual ice started coming down until after 10pm though.
Tuesday morning we woke up with about a quarter inch of ice on everything. No snow, no sleet, just ice. My office opened at 10am, so we had plenty of time to get ready and de-ice the car. (Clarification - I got ready, Jason de-iced the car.) A lot of schools and businesses were closed but I knew our office wouldn't close. Even with the next storm coming before the office would close at 5:00 pm.
We tried to figure out if I should drive and park in the Schuster Center's covered parking garage (at $9/day) and keep all additional ice (and whatever else falls from the sky) off the car. Or should I let Jason drive me in and therefore keeping him from having to de-ice our other car. Jason ended up driving me to work. This really is a wonderful thing because then I don't have to walk on the ice covered sidewalks and I'm not freezing and stressed out when I get to work.
The roads weren't too bad but we did see an accident of sorts. There's a lot of construction on Wayne just past Wilmington (going north). There was a car in the construction area, facing the wrong way, that apparently hit a back hoe. As we passed the accident scene we realized that the back window had been broken by a large part sticking out from the back hoe. If the car hadn't turned around that would have been the windshield and much more dangerous for the driver. Thankfully it looked like the driver was alright.
Jason dropped me off and headed back to the house. Shortly after this he sent me the following email.
We made it home with no problems. The neighbors were still out cleaning their cars off. Izzy went down to say hi and got excited when they spoke to her and she started to run. It didn't work our too well, she kept sliding and falling down. It was hilarious.
Why do moments like this always happen when you don't have a video camera handy??? I would have loved to have seen that.
Around 4:00 pm the ice started coming down again. The attorneys were walking around telling their secretaries to go home before the roads got bad. I left a few minutes before 5:00 and it was definitely coming down again. It really seemed like this ice storm was going to be worse than the previous one.
(Side note - when we got home the same neighbor was just getting home and Izzers ran to go see her again. So I DID get to see a replay of Izzy running down the sidewalk and not really getting anywhere. I just love this little dog!)
All evening I watched facebook, reading my friends' posts about their lights flickering or their electricity going out. I kept looking out the window watching the tree limbs grow heavy with the ice. The limb above our Pontiac is normally several feet above the car. With all the ice that limb was hanging all the way down to the bumper.
As a precaution I lit some candles and made sure my cell phone (and lap top) was fully charged. I wonder if Izzy could sense something was wrong, she kept wanting to go outside. (Though I think she was more concerned about one of her chewies that was frozen to the sidewalk.)
Around 10:00 pm the ice had turned to rain; unusual when it's 29 degrees outside! I decided to head outside and get some pictures of the ice that was covering everything. I had this idea of using the street light in front of our house to backlight the beautiful ice-covered trees. Then there was a flash and then something that sounded like an explosion, and the street lights were out. (Dangit.) Thankfully those were the only lights that had gone out.
So I walked around using the flash on my little camera to capture the following pictures.
I also crunched down the grass so Izzy could have some traction when she went outside. By the time I came back inside the temperature outside had gone up to 31 degrees. What crazy weather we were having!
Although there was now rain coming down (and not turning to ice) the wind was starting to pick up. The new concern was the wind causing tree limbs to come down especially with the extra weight they were carrying. The damage the wind storms from Hurricane Ike caused is still fresh in our minds. The worst part was going days, and some went weeks, without electricity. (We went 6 days without electricity but it was much nicer weather out.)
We started hearing noises that sounded like someone trying to open our mail box door (it comes into the house) and then there was a thud. We both went out on the front porch expecting to see a limb from the neighbor's tree on our porch - and there was nothing! We realized it was the ice from the tree coming down. A wind gust proved this to Jason (who was further out on the porch) as he got pelted with ice bits.
The rest of the evening we listened to ice hitting our front window and reading posts on facebook of things getting worse. I'm not really sure how to describe how I was feeling other than I felt like a character in a horror movie where you were waiting for the Big Scary Thing to happen. It was unnerving to say the least.
We started reading reports online that 60,000 people were without power (I think it topped out at 75,000). The Beavercreek campus of our church (the big one) was activated as a Red Cross shelter. (After the wind storm two years ago, people at our church were trained as Red Cross volunteers and our church was approved as a shelter.)
And then I heard another explosion. I looked outside and the neighbors across the street were without power, the entire block. I was trying not to worry but I started assuming we were next to lose power. We ended up going to bed around midnight, with our power still on.
Around 3:30 am I woke up and checked outside and the neighbors had their electricity back on. I let Izzy outside and with one gust of wind she was back at the door wanting inside. I let her in but the way she was acting I knew she needed to go back outside. So I put some shoes on and my coat and headed back out with her. It wasn't raining anymore, but the wind was howling. Izzy did her business and came quickly back inside. Poor baby.
I got the call again at 6:00 am that our office was going to open late at 10:00 am. This time I took the opportunity and slept in an hour. This time the trip to work was a little more treacherous. Just getting to the car took awhile. The sidewalks looked like there was broken glass everywhere from the ice that had fallen from the trees. (I REALLY wish I had gotten a picture of it!) The broken pieces were frozen to the layer of ice so they offered some traction.
We had to slide down the ice covered grass to get to the car. The strip of grass between the sidewalk and road is only three feet wide, but it's pretty steep. So the strategy was to put my arms out, take a step, and then fall into the car. Jason's arms aren't as long as mine, so his landing wasn't as graceful. (Yes, falling into a car can be graceful. Ha.)
On the drive downtown we saw broken tree limbs everywhere. Some trees were split in half. It looked a lot like it did the day after the wind storm. We lost so many old trees in East Dayton, I'm wondering how many we'll lose this time around.
No accidents on the way to work but we did get stuck behind a guy on a bike who wouldn't get out of the middle of the road. I understand when the road is covered in ice that riding in the tire tracks is easier, but really, should you even be riding your bike when there's a level 2 snow (ice) emergency? Thankfully he pulled over at Boston Stoker, I guess he has his priorities straight.
There were even less people at work today, but that meant it was a catch-up day for me. I heard we were supposed to get another inch of snow, and indeed we did. By the time Jason came to get me there was a layer of snow everywhere. It's currently 20 degrees and the high tomorrow is 26 degrees, but it's supposed to be sunny so I'm looking forward to that! However I heard rumors that we're getting more snow next week.
Ugh.
The one good thing is that we were supposed to be busy busy busy last night and tonight and instead we've gotten a chance to get a few things done, hang out with Izzy and I've definitely enjoyed Jason's cooking the last two nights. That's one thing about snow days, they definitely force you to slow down and stay inside. A couple days of that is nice, any more than a couple days and I'm going crazy.
So glad life is getting back to normal tomorrow. For now.
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