[eskielover]

For me it was quite an experience coming from California....I will post more about my experience & some beautiful photos.....but was wondering about others experience in the area. It got down to 36F in the house & almost lost one of my doggies to the cold.....& hypothermia almost took it's tole on me one of the days.....will post more when I have some time.....but wanted to see how everyone else survived this experience......they said it was the worst ice storm in over 100 years.....how so much beauty could do so much damage....no electric for almost 1 week.

We are thawed out now.....went from -2 the other day right after the storm to 54 today.......most of the ice & snow has melted......but the broken trees are hanging around to tell the tale.

Debbie

[ECHOES]

Debbie, it's so good to see you post! I thought of you when I was hearing on the news about the ice storms and how bad it was in KY. I hadn't seen you here for a while and didn't know if you still came here.

I'm glad you and your dogs are okay. I can't imagine being without power in that kind of weather! Do you have a fireplace? (Will you be adding one?!)

Thanks for letting us know you are okay and I"m looking forward to hearing more and seeing your pics!
Big warm hugs to ya

[eskielover]

I could write a book about the weeks events, but I will try to keep it shorter. The photos are under my profile in the album "Ky ice storm".

The week started off all wrong. I was supposed to get my pain medication prescription filled on Sunday, but the patient assistance messed it up the first of the year & wouldn't fill it after telling me in November that I was good until May & there would be no problem. I spent all day Monday trying to get the problem solved, knowing that if I didn't I would end up in withdrawal.

The weather report was calling for "ice" Monday night. I had no idea if I could even get to the pharmacy on Tuesday morning. Well, Monday came & went & no one cooperated with me to get my prescription filled even though I kept telling them it was an emergency situation.

My pain specialist provided me a "just in case" prescription that wasn't going to do much good, but would help a little with any withdrawal symptoms. I went out in the cold Monday night to pick it up at the pharmacy.

The whole night, I was heard the tap, tap, tap of the ice raining down on my skylights in the bathroom. I was on the phone early Tuesday morning, trying to solve the problem. I looked outside to see what the weather was like & saw everything covered in 1" + of ice. I fought until noon still trying to solve the problem when I finally found out they had tried to call me around 10am but the cell phone towers weren't working well because of the ice storm.

I had prayed Monday night that the withdrawal symptoms wouldn't be bad when I knew I wouldn't be getting my meds. I was surprised that I didn't experience anything like I had previously experienced when I was just late in filling my prescript one time.

I ran out to my truck to get into town. There was ice all over everything. It was 1" + thick on the windows of my truck. So that was what all the tap, tap, tap on my skylights ended up looking like. I chipped away at the ice with my scraper & got a large section cleared off my drivers side. I turned on the defrost, hoping it would melt the rest....lol....wishful thinking. I jumped into my truck . Stuck it in 4x4 high, heading up my ice covered gravel driveway. As I pulled up to the street, I realized I couldn't see. As I pulled out on the street.....crunch. I opened the door to see & there was my mail box, splot all over the ground (luckily no mail). I backed up my truck & smunch, scrape, scrunch. My truck had slid off the gravel & into the bush they had planted next to the driveway. The tires were just spinning even in low gear & in 4x4. I just sat in my truck . This can't be happening to me. When I got out of my truck to check out what was going on....right down on the icy driveway. That was an ouch, but nothing bad.

I called the pharmacy. No one could bring the prescription to me. Only a couple of people made it to work because of the ice storm. I called my friend to see if she knew anybody that was out in town that could stop by the pharmacy . I called Anderson Circle Farm.....they are my neighbor & have many workers there who are always driving in & out of the farm & into town. Everyone had gone home at noon because of the ice.

I had a bag of sand in my garage. I could dump that under the tire of the truck & then drive it out of it's stuck place. I wasn't feeling very strong by that time with all the frustrations. While I was looking at my truck, I heard a car coming down the street heading toward town....I could flag it down & see if they could take me to the pharmacy,. Turned out it was the head pharmacist who helped me on Sunday when I couldn't get my prescription.....he knew my situation.....What better angel could have been sent to help me???? Only problem, he was heading to work & wouldn't be coming home until 10pm that night but he would bring my prescription to me then if I couldn't find a better solution. Told him that would be ok & I would call him if I came up with another option. I went back into my house to relax a little before going out to take care of my neighbors 16 horses, trying to decide if I wanted to haul the sand out to the truck or not. There was a knock at my front door. Standing there was a man with brown bag from the pharmacy in his hand......another real angel standing there with his truck across the street. He told me he works for Anderson Circle Farm & lives down the street. His wife was sick & he had taken her to the Dr, stopping by the pharmacy on his way home to get his wife her med & get her into bed. The pharmacist asked him if he would be able to drop my prescription by my house. Another answered. Not only that, but he got my truck unstuck & back in front of my garage where it was safe. I quickly got a hot shower, changed my pain patches & headed over to take care of all the horses. This was only the start of my ice storm experience.

Taking care of the horses, it was still raining ice & by the time I got back to my house my down jacket & I were drenched & cold. All I could think about was a nice hot shower to thaw out. I walked into the house & into the kitchen & realize the power was out. The last ice storm they told me about, the power had been out for 11 days That couldn't possibly happen this time. At least I had hot water....I still had propane in my tank that hadn't run out yet. The electric hot water heater is sitting in the basement waiting for the propane to run out so my friend can install it.....but there was still propane in the tank.....so I would have hot water even if the electric was off. My hot showers are the only thing that helps my joints feel good & get my body moving. My hot showers also relieve my anxiety attacks. As long as I had my hot showers....everything would be OK!!!!!!! The cell phone error message I was getting must be from the ice storm but even AT&T didn't know what it was.

Without electricity, I had no internet even if I had my computer on battery. Oh well, it had been a long day & I was exhausted. The ice rain had ended, but it getting colder outside. It was now down to 50F from the 70F in my house in just a few hours. The hot water let me warm up the doggies food so they could go to bed on a tummy full of warm food. I ate some jello & melting ice cream before heading upstairs to curl up under the blankets with my upstairs doggies to try & keep warm.

Wednesday morning I woke up checking to see if the power was back on. Looking outside, there were huge snow flakes coming down. It was covering the thick layers of ice. At least it would be safer walking than yesterday I decided to gather all my batteries for my radio so I could know what was going on & just hear a human voice. Got out batteries for my NOAA weather radio also. Gathered the my battery operated candles so I could at least have some light in my dark bedroom at night. I don't like complete dark. I got all the blankets together I had brought to KY with me & threw them on my air mattress bed. The radio indicated that electric would be out for weeks if we were lucky.....they hadn't even started to figure how much damage yet.

My cell phone battery was completely dead now & I didn't have a car charger for it. Just got the phone a couple of months earlier & just hadn't gotten around to getting a car charger yet. Hopefully Walmart would have one....they always have everything. A car charger & a camp stove.....I could survive no problem. It took me awhile to get myself out into the cold to take care of my neighbor's horses again.

When I got back from taking care of the horses, I was sweating & hot, but the house was down to 43F so I got chilled.....I was looking forward to the hot shower.......I turned on the hot water in the kitchen to wash my hands & no hot water. There wasn't much water coming out of the faucet, but that shouldn't have an effect on the hot water. I went down to the basement & checked the pilot light on the waterheater.....no pilot light burning. Just my perfect timing......to run out of the propane now...couldn't have waited just a few weeks more....had to be NOW. That meant I wasn't going to have hot water even when the electric came back on because my friend is down in Florida for the winter & we figured the propane would last until he got back.. How much worse can it get.

I threw on dry cold cloths to warm up a bit, & went out to my truck. Turned on the heat & chipped off the rest of the ice from my windshield so I could see all around my truck this time. Put my truck in 4x4 & drove out to the road. I was heading to town & everything was black...not a light anywhere....drove down my normal route to town & ran into so many trees on the road, I couldn't get around them.....had to turn around & find another route into town. When I finally got into town there was light.

Pizza place open. I was starving, All I had eaten so far was the that was melting in the freezer but I wanted to take care of business first...food could wait. I headed for Walmart that should have everything I needed. I kept driving..right past where Walmart was. It was completely black.....they had no electricity, so they weren't open.

Decided to drive to the next town praying that Walmart would be open. It was open, but all the shelves were empty....they had nothing I needed for survival. NOW WHAT? They wouldn't even let me charge my cell phone, saying it was a liability they couldn't take. I picked up some things I could eat without heating cold cereal & milk.....wow!!!! everything I had in my house required cooking or heating in the microwave, so this was better than nothing!!!!! I got into my warm truck & started my drive home.....mind trying to figure out what to do now???? I had my phone charger....I could stop by the pharmacy & charge it there???....they close at 10pm so I had enough time for at least a little charging to get me through the night in case of an emergency.

I had the radio on the local station that was covering the ice storm disaster.....just as I got back to my town, they announced that a load of 60 generators had arrived at the Lowe's in Danville.....that Lowe'sgenerator creates was right across the street from the Walmart I had just been to, 15 minutes away. A generator creates electricity.. a possible solution to my problem.....not knowing how long the electric will be off, we (me & my 6 doggies) had to survive somehow. I didn't have wood for my fireplace, & all the wood was wet anyway even if I did pick up the wood from my friends house. I found a place to u-turn on the highway & found myself speeding back to the store. Stupid....don't speed on an icy road. I slowed down. Arrived at the store at 9:05pm......were they closed????? NO. They were staying open so everyone who needed the generators could get them. How much were the generators???? Wow, that's expensive, but I'm going to live in KY for the rest of my life.....I'm sure the power will go out many more times so it's an investment for the house...justify the expense!!!! So the problem???? It takes 2 strong men to load in into my truck....no way can I handle it myself.

I am learning that it's important to be able to ask for help & not expect people to just offer help when they have no idea if you need help & there is nothing wrong with needing help....especially when it comes to survival. I would figure out who to call in the morning after some sleep. My cell phone still wasn't charged & the pharmacy was closed.....the police station is always open. I drove there & picked up the phone at the door, getting me to the dispatch people. Explained my problem & they gladly let me into the lobby to plug in my phone & make the calls on my cell phone to answer my voice mails & let others know I was ok.......I felt safe & warm inside even after walking around the tree that had crashed down on the walkway to the police department door. There was slippery ice & destruction everywhere I turned.

When I left the police department lobby around 1am, my phone was completely charged & I headed home to take care of my doggies. I couldn't let the doggies outside because I had no way of warming them up or drying them off, so I just had to clean up their messes. The coyotes were also prowling & howling around my house, so I sure wasn't going to take any chances. The clean up wasn't bad the way it was all set up. I filled the puppy pens with blanket to keep them warm & my upstairs doggies snuggled under the down comforters with me on my air mattress bed.

Didn't want to leave the warm covers Thursday morning.....the house was down to 36F. With my charged cell phone, I was able to call for help getting the generator off the truck & set up on my front porch. The man I called swooped in for about 15 minutes...had the generator set up & running & was off as & was yelling a heart felt thank you as he was speeding off to help more people who needed help. Fear of the carbon monoxide was something I took care of immediately. The exhaust was blowing out to the yard but I stuffed the slightly open window where the cord was running into the house with blankets so I couldn't feel any cold air s coming in. I got my detectors out anyway & sat one going into the kitchen for my kitchen doggies & the other on the stairs for my bedroom upstairs .....they were working & never even beeped, so I felt safe from that. There have been many deaths because of the generator created carbon monoxide.

I had one extension cord so I could make hot water, or I could cook on my 2 burner unit, or I could use the toaster oven, or I could plug in a light. There was room for 4 other extension cords....I needed to get more....& I needed a space heater to warm up my bedroom. It was getting way to cold to survive even with hot water or hot food.

I realized just how dangerous the cold was getting when I got back from feeding my neighbors horses that afternoon. I was so sweaty & chilled that I almost passed out before my mind kicked in telling me I HAD TO GET THE WET CLOTHS OFF!!!!!put on dry cloths & wrap up in my blankets trying to recover. I called my friend to see if I could borrow her hot shower on Friday. I got my doggies all settled & took off in the truck to find the extension cords & a space heater.....found the extension cords.....but only a tiny space heater. I decided to go ahead & buy it if I couldn't find anything else or borrow one in the mean time. Got home, set up the extension cords & hot water & a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner. Set up the little space heater & crawled under the down blankets.

Strange thing was I woke up at 4am with a panic attack like I haven't had in years.....I was craving a hot shower to control it & knowing I wasn't going to have a hot shower even when I got my electric back made the panic that much worse. I got up in the cold to try & walk it off & went down stairs to check on the doggies.....the sound of the generator going all night didn't help either.....I went back to my room & got out a book to read & turned up the radio to just hear a human voice...praying for relief from the claustrophobia/panic I was feeling. All of a sudden, the phone was ringing.....it was my friend from Wilmore.....she said she woke up in the middle of the night (which she never does) & said she knew she had to call me to see how I was because she realized how serious my situation actually was. I was so in shock that my prayer had been answered....I sat there in tears blubbering about being in the middle of an anxiety attack I was struggling with. We sat & talked for almost an hour.......finally hung up stayed under the covers until 9:30am when I got up to more snow, but the outlook of taking Celia along with me to her house that night. Celia, my littlest eskie was so cold she wouldn't stop shaking even with her sweater on & curled up in the down blanket. I knew that any longer without warming up & she wasn't going to make it.

Had some errands to take care of on Friday & a problem to solve at the bank before heading to my friends house. I was finally able to get hold of my 90 year old friend who I knew was without power also. I knew she had a guy working for her, taking care of her horses & animals, so I knew she was being taken care of,but I was worried anyway.....turnes out that she needed a warm blanket so I traded her a comforter for her spare space heater....that gave me a chance to check in on her & see how she was doing before heading to my friends house for the night & a wonderful hot shower that I had been desperate for since Tuesday. I had loaded my 2 doggies into he truck. The warmth of that heater started to help Celia already.

Ice & snow had been piling up all week. It wasn't until Saturday & my drive home that the beauty of the whole ice storm was glittering in the sun light. All the photos I have under my profile in the album of the KY ice storm. How such beauty could cause so much destruction. Over 600,000 people were without power & most of us were also without water & then it had to be boiled.

On my drive into Danville this last Sunday morning, looking at all the broken trees, looked like a giant had stomped through the land & then in some areas decided to just sit on the trees & mangle them to pieces. The trees with all their branches broken off looked like my hair with all it's split ends sticking straight up in the air. Considering the trees had been bent over to the ground with the weight of the ice, it was a miracle that they would ever stand up straight again.

I didn't realize just how much I was actually just trying to survive the storm until I looked back at what I went through. Talking to my pharmacist to thank him for his help, he said any time I needed help to make sure I asked. That was when I realized how much we want to be strong enough to take care of ourselves....sort of a pride thing. The important thing is to know when we really need help & to be able to communicate that need in a way that is understood. Many people can hear what we are saying when we talk about what is going on around us, but if we don't specifically ask for help, they really don't know just how serious the situation actually is unless they were in our shoes & trying to survive.

I know my friends have cared for me at a deeper level than I ever experienced in California when I was still living with my husband. Neighors really went out of their way to help & even the fire department going door to door, making sure that everyone was ok....I also experienced prayer being answered which was never so obvious before & learned how important being willing & able to communicate my needs to others actually was in the process of surviving.

Kentucky has really thrown me some trials this last year, starting with a year ago when we had 11 tornadoes touch down in February last year.....then the 17 year cicadas that annoyed me all summer, the auto accident & rescuing the girls dog from the accident, the drought for 2 years in a row & then the ice storm. The friends I have here have helped me through these rough times & the changes in my life have made such an amazing difference.

I am sure that there are many others who have experiences such wonders through disasters like this.....I was wondering how others survived this ice storm also....who would think something like this would end up being a disaster.

Debbie

[eskielover]

I know the one thing I came away with from this experience is a huge appreciation for others here who have gone through much worse disasters.....Katrina & other disasters not as extreme.....but it takes quiet some time afterward to put yourself back together. Thinking that one goes right back into resuming where they were right before it all hit is definitely expecting a little too much....it just doesn't happen that way.

Blessings on all who have experiences disasters in their lives of any kind,
Debbie