ICE ICE BABY!

January 27th was the beginning of record rain mixed with freezing temps. The results a 4 state disaster. What took 70 years to establish, was wiped out in 3 days. In many places the poles had snapped in half and were all over the place.

This was the typical street. Impassable due to power lines or trees down. They have replaced over 10,000 poles, and that is probably a low estimate.

This is a bush at Jason's work.

This is from our backyard deck. Thankfully the pole did not fall on our fence. Unfortunately, our neighbor had one fall on theirs. The first day we were without power we made the decision to travel and stay with a family in our ward who still had power. Within our ward (a 1 & 1/2 hour distance) their subdivision was one of a few who never lost power. Go figure. Bro & Sis. Hansen is who we stayed with. They were great! They became adopted grandparents to the kids.

This was the third day of freezing temps. The back of the mailbox melted but the front was still frozen.

Our little tree has made a great recovery though we thought it was a goner. It is almost straight now.

This is my favorite. These are blades of grass that have an inch of ice. It reminds me of Popsicles. If you look close you can see the blades of grace inside each cycle.

This is Jason's front work lawn full of these Popsicles!

Nothing like a frozen basketball net.


We stayed with the Hansen's for 2 weeks before our area received power. Today, a month later there are still some outer areas without power. It took two weeks for the kids to get back into school and some schools were even longer. I just can't describe how it was. We had been through ice storms in Dallas but never saw the damage that hit here. It was humbling to see a whole area shut down. People panic and at times stores/gas stations were unable to open. When they were able to open the people cleaned out the stores. Banks were down so you couldn't use debit cards. The National Guard patrolled our little Kennett to keep the peace as people under stress make bad choices, like going to walmart with a gun. (that happened the first day the store opened and had to be shut back down again while order was restored). The prophets have told us to be prepared, there is much I learned about through this crisis.

1. have a heat source.

2. food easily prepared or a way to cook it a must. Some had food but no way to really cook it.

3. water can be scarce- we were fine but some wells were threatened because of power loss. Making it impossible to pump the water (it's electric).

4. gas storage would be good idea. Not only incase you must leave, but incase you use a generator. It took 4-5 days for gas stations to reopen, which sent people into panic trying to get gas. Propane heaters have become very popular as they don't stink like Kerosine and they can use the tank from your grill:)

5. Nothing material really matters (big screen tvs, fancy stuff). We were just grateful we had a warm place, food, good health and each other. We were blessed.
6. There really are good people in the world. Jason's people needed food, they were trying to keep the office open so that the work would not be moved out of state to another site (which would mean he would have to go too); so he contacted places to see where he could get food to feed his employees as all fast food joints were closed. One place was running off a generator so they couldn't take credit cards, the man was wonderful and gave them the food and told them to pay when they were able. Yes they paid him, but he was very trusting, all to make sure people would have food.

7. There is always one who takes advantage: yes people were jacking prices of generators and such to make a profit, but some went so far as to get free meals at the shelters. We know this as people at Jason's work saw family on tv who had heat and food but felt the gov. owed them so they were collecting in free meals. It's pretty sad. Many of those shelters functioned from donations. In the end it all really comes from each one of us. So they are only taking from each other with that mentality.

We have all caught colds now, but I can't complain, we were all well during this disaster and that was a blessing. It had to be stressful for those who needed medication and Doctor care during this time. We had just gotten Luke's 90 day supply filled for his diabetes and this had no worries with that. We finally got cable/Internet/phone a week ago. It has been a slow process getting our lives back to the norm. But we are doing fine. Love to you all - Mels