Ice Attack

The title of this post is a direct quote from The Springfield News-Leader regarding our recent storm event (wow...is that an understatement!). What a week this has been. Sorry I have not blogged sooner, but nothing has gone as usual this week. The infamous ice storm began a week ago today on Friday afternoon, and at first just seemed to be rain....albeit hard rain. Even though the forcasters continued to warn about ice, we honestly started to believe this was probably just another in the usual line of misforcasts around here, and hence, we decided to get out of the house and go watch the first round of the Tournament of Champions at MSU, specifically wanting to see Glendale play. After absolutely soaking ourselves getting into Hammons Center and watching a great game (although Glendale lost), our first clue to the severity of the storm came when the family in front of us received a cell phone call from a neighbor saying that the power was completely out in Willard. We finished watching the game and quickly started home. It still just seemed like hard rain, although we could see the beginnings of icicles beginning to form on the trees. We were VERY grateful to get home and find we still had power. Upon awaking Saturday morning, I got a call from mom (in her 2nd day of battling a major flu) stating that they had lost power during the night, and still were in the dark. We turned the TV on and began hearing reports of widespread power outages, but naively thought it would be back on very soon. With ours still on and strong, we went on with our day, and by evening were feeling fairly confident. Jacob and I headed out to hit Wal-Mart, and I swear, the store looked like a refugee camp with people wandering around just to have somewhere to be with light and heat. I ran into several people we know, and it became quickly evident that we were in the minority with still having electricity. We made our purchases (including 2 gallons of ice cream....I know...I'm crazy!), and headed out. Not 5 minutes after leaving, my cell phone rang, and it was Darrell letting me know that we had joined the ranks of those in the dark.

We made it home and began scrambling around for flashlights, candles, etc. My goodness are we unprepared around here! We did, however, have a battery powered radio, and Darrell got into the attic and got down the kerosene lantern which successfully lit the living room and made things much better. I handled the call to CU, and after about 30 minutes, managed to get through and register our outage with the rest of the city. Reality then began to set in when the operator told me we were looking at "days" rather than hours to have our power returned.

We made the best of it on Saturday night, reading in the living room, and finally tucking ourselves in. The house actually stayed really warm on Saturday night, but by Sunday morning, it was REALLY cold. We turned the radio on and began hearing reports about the power possibly being out for a week, and that there were a few generators available across town at Granger Supply. We decided this was probably the thing to do, so we quickly dressed and headed out on the town. It honestly looked like a war zone. We had no idea how awful the damage was. We made it to Granger, along with the rest of the city, and were obviously unsuccessful in obtaining a generator there. However, while standing outside, Darrell heard a lady come by and yell out her car window that Smillie's IGA had a truck in the parking lot where generators were being sold, so off we went. After an hour-and-a-half wait, we were privileged to obtain a $600 generator, mistakenly thinking that we had tackled the hard job of the day. We then headed off to get gasoline to power said generator, and found that this would be the true challenge. We ended up in Ozark before we found a station that had gas and power.

After making it home, I began calling to check on friends and neighbors. I got my friend Susan who said they, too, had a generator, and that Jeffrey had it hooked up to the furnace, so they were nice and warm, although a bit bored. I quickly jumped on her comment about the furnace, and she told me Jeffrey would be happy to come over and help Darrell get ours set up. What a Godsend!! After Jeffrey left, we had heat, light, and television. I've never been so thrilled with a purchase in my life!

All in all, we have truly been one of the lucky households. Our power returned on Monday at around 11:30. Mom's came back on Tuesday afternoon, but we still know many, many people without power, and with no hope of power until late next week. To top that off, we are expecting snow tomorrow...so our prayers are with all of those who are still in very uncomfortable circumstances. Schweitzer served as a shelter until just today when they finally closed down and transferred the load to some other churches. It has honestly been the craziest thing I've ever lived through in my life.

The rest of our week has been quite out of the norm. The kids are not going back to school until Tuesday. Sylvia got a horrible stomach virus on Wednesday night, and is just now starting to feel a bit better. Her birthday party is tomorrow, and I really hope she sleeps well and feels more like herself in the morning. Jacob has been a bit bored and not wanting to tackle his homework. Coach Baker managed to get the team some practice time at The Courts, so they practiced 2 hours yesterday and 2 hours today. I think that was really good for them to get out and get a good work out.

Well....I'm out of energy for now, but will write more later in the week. Enjoy the pics. The field up the street from us truly looks like a scene out of Narnia, and we have hence nicknamed it as such.