Midwest Ice Storm

[wareagle]

Are any of you guys affected by the ice storm that has parallized the middle of the country? From what I have heard, it is prety nasty in that region! I talked with a friend of mine that lives in Tulsa, Ok, and he said that power company told them to expect to be without power for at least three weeks. Sounds like they are going to have it rough up there for a while.

If any of you all are in the middle of it, our thoughts are with you and your families. Hope you all can stay warm and safe!!

 

[lugnut]

Wow! That is tough! I can't imagine going through three weeks with out power. We just had a 36 hour power outage and I thought it was bad. And I had a generator to help out with keeping the fridge and freezer and heat going. Three weeks will put a huge strain on the toughest of those folks. I can't even imagine living in a bigger city and going through something like that.
Mel

 

[shred]

I did 2 weeks without power long ago. That was in summer from a freak storm knocking down 100-year-old trees. Without heat it would be a whole lot worse.

When they first got power restored, the lights came on briefly, people cheered, then the power surge from everything electrical starting up at once blew the new transformer and we were out for another 3 days.

 

[Canyonman]

Hi All,

I'm set. Have not lost power yet. I'm 154 mi West of Tulsa. We got hammered! Luckily our local electricity markup actually went for infrastructure improvement. In the housing developments all the utilities are underground. So unless a trunk line breaks, we are online!

I had just about had my Bradford Pear tree pruned up so you would not notice the damage from 03. It looks like a Weeping Willow at the moment.

As for travel, forget it! I have 4wd, fine it gets you going, but you can't stop. The folks around here have this weather so infrequently that there are very few backup supplies.

We heard of a convoy of elect trucks and men rolled in from Dallas. They always seem to show up here. But then we also go down there when the need arises. So I guess we are "sister cities"

As of 3 this morning they were down to 260 blocks without power. I have not checked lately.

Actually, now comes the hard part! As things thaw, wires and trees "sproing" back to vertical,<did ya like my technical talk?> and that blows transformers.

So, So Far, So Good!

Thanks for the thoughts!

Ken

 

[rake60]

That storm reached Western PA early this morning. It was a little tough to keep my feet under me while I was chipping the ice off the windows of my junk two wheel drive pick up truck with the summer tires on. :
Driving it to a well traveled street was also a little entertaining. (I'm used to turning the wheel effecting the direction of travel!)

We lost power at the shop twice this morning. It's amazing how fast machinist can move in a CNC department when the lights flicker. The second time took me by supprise. I had to replace the inset in a boring bar, and fight the computer to boot back up, but no significant damage.

Damn Computers Anyway!!!

Rick