Ice Storm

On Tuesday January 26 an ice storm hit our area and the weather said that there was another round of ice going to hit that night. On that day there was a lot of power out north of us but we still had power. We were hopeful that it wouldn't hit our town very bad but still made preparations just in case. We did all of the laundry, Alan convinced me to make bread and he changed out all of our stored water so that we would have fresh water. We also got all of our flashlights and candles ready and Alan filled up our kerosene heater. We just bought one at the beginning of this winter. Alan felt very strongly that we needed to buy one so we did and we are sooooooo glad that he listened to the promptings.

This is what it looked like after that first night (on Tuesday). It is a very pretty sight to see everthing covered in ice, but also an uneasy feeling knowing what the weight of ice can do to a tree and powerlines. It rained all day Tuesday.

That night the power was flickering every once in a while and Alli sat on the couch with her flashlight in her hand and her finger ready to turn it on. Jonathan kept asking, "When is the power going to go out." He wanted to use his flashlight...little did he know that the next few days he would have lots of opportunities. :)

We went to bed hoping that if it hit that our tree that hung over the power line would not fall down. I woke up to feed Olivia at 2 am and couldn't go back to sleep the rest of the night. I kept hearing the cracking and falling of branches all around us. It is the most unsettling and scary sound I have ever heard. I prayed all night long that everyone would be safe (we have trees on every side of our house.) The power went out a little after 3 am and soon after that I heard the biggest crack and thud, I knew that it was one of our trees but since the power went out we couldn't see outside. This is what we saw in the morning...Luckily (or should I say we were blessed) it is far enough away from our house and cars that nothing was damaged and the tree that hangs over the power line stayed in place. (I don't know why the pictures are blue).

Hanging out around the kerosene heater with some friends, who came over to get warm. Our 80 year old neighbor is in blue sweatshirt. She is the kids "Kentucky grandma." The lady on the right of the couch stayed with us for 2 days because she didn't have a heat source in her house. We were without power for 2 1/2 days. We were lucky because most of the counties around us are still without power.

More friends who came to hang out and get warm.

When there is an emergency situation the missionaries are required to go to the Bishop's house and since Alan is now the Bishop we had the great opportunity of housing the missionaries for the night. The kids thought that was pretty cool. This is all of us eating soup that I had cooked on a propane camp stove (by candlelight).

This is with the flash... This is what it really looked like eating dinner by candle light.
On day 2 without power-The missionaries cooking breakfast-pancakes and sausage on our coleman cooking stove. We turned the heater off at night and piled lots of blankets on everybody. Our house only got down to 52 degrees inside which isn't bad. It felt like waking up in the morning after camping in the mountains. The kids thought it was soooo much fun. They "camped out" on our floor in their sleeping bags with 3 blankets piled on them.
Alan got a real initiation as Bishop of our ward. He had only been bishop for 2 weeks when this hit. He was basically gone all day, everyday for 3 days checking on people since all of the phone communication was down, cell phone and land lines(the only cell phone that worked was Verizon. We will be switching after this :). You don't realize how much we rely on the phone until you don't have one to use.

While Alan was gone on the 2nd day we went over to some friends to hang out so we didn't have to be alone. The kids had fun playing with their friends and I enjoyed the company too.
Friends: He used to be bishop of our ward and now he is in the Stake Presidency, that is why we had to get a new bishop. Alan was his 1st counselor in the bishopbric. Pictures of our tree on the 2nd day.
The tree that broke was my favorite tree. I was very sad. This is what it looked like in the spring... Isn't it beautiful?

Our tree in the fall

The tree after the first round of the ice storm...

The second round...cracked in half

All of our branches and the new look of our front yard without the tree. I am going to miss it. The kids are going to miss it too because in the summer it used to shade our driveway so the kids could ride their bikes and scooters. We are going to have to have the stump removed and plant another tree in the spring.

We made it through and we are back to normal but there are still thousands more people without power and water all around us and it has now been over a week and a half. They are predicting that for many it will still be another week if not longer. I have a little survivors guilt as I sit in my warm house, being able to take a shower and have light at night. I still need to remember them and help in anyway that I can.

Throughout all of this a scripture kept coming to mind-

"If ye are prepared ye shall not fear." (D&C 38:30)

Some things that we learned from this experience:

1. Have plenty of water-you will need it for drinking, washing, and flushing the toilet (if you have no water at all) and it takes more water than you think to flush a toilet. Remember to rotate it often so that it is fresh. We had water but the main water line broke so they didn't know if the water was contaminated so we were on a boil water notice until the water could be tested which was a week later.

2. You need a cooking source and plenty of propane or whatever fuels it. Make sure you keep your propane in a place where you can find it. We couldn't find our full propane cylinder we only had one that was half full.

3. Keep plenty of paper products stocked up at home-plates, silverware and cups. If you don't have water you won't be able to wash dishes and even if you do have water you won't want to try to do dishes- no hot water to wash with no electricity.

4. Have a heat source and plenty of kerosene, propane, wood, etc... to keep you warm. We had enough for 3 days but I would have liked to have had enough for at least 5 days just in case. We ran our kerosene heater from 7am-8pm and it took 1 gallon. We liked our heater, it kept our living room at about 62 degrees which is bareable. We have some friends that have a propane heater(Mr. Heater) and they didn't think that it put out as much heat.

5. flashlights and radio-krank and battery powered and candles. We had just put all of our flashlights in a container and candles in another and put them in a closet where they were easily accessible and we were so grateful for that.

6. Hand sanitizer

7. Prepare for not just you and your family but be prepared to take in others. We didn't know about the missionaries until that day and then we took in a single sister in our ward too. You need enough food to feed them too and blankets, sleeping bags, etc... to keep them warm.

8. Never let your gas go below 1/2 tank before filling up. You cannot buy gas in a power outage. The closest place that had gas here had looooooong lines and a traffic jam getting into the town. Luckily we had just filled up both of our cars the week before.

9. We are trying to decided whether to get a generator. If it would have been more than 3 days it would be so nice to have one and if you get your water from a well you will need one to pump your water. If you have freezers full of food you would need one to save all of your food from going bad.

10. And of course you need food that is easy to cook or heat up. This is when you use your 3 months supply that we are counciled to have. We wish that we would have had more snack things like crackers, granola bars, trail mix etc... There was one store here that had a generator and they were letting people buy the essentials but we heard that it was a mad house. We were so glad that we didn't have to worry about that.

11.Don't forget to have a 72 hour kit. Thankfully we didn't have to use them but you never know when that day may come.

I know that there is more but this is all for now. I am sooo thankful for and have a testimony of modern day prophets who have counciled us to be prepared and have told us how to get prepared. There were sooooo many people in this area that were not prepared and so they were panicing. They are the ones that make fun of us when we go to the grocery store and buy tons of can goods when they are on sale. I don't think they will be making fun anymore. It was nice to have peace of mind and know that we were going to be okay. I was so thankful that we were prepared so that our kids didn't have to worry and be upset. They thought that it was fun and a big campout. That was the best thing for me. You just never know when something is going to come your way and " if you are prepared, you shall not fear."