BleepingComputer.com: Mid West Ice Storm

Hi All,found these on the net and thought they were so beautiful.
We dont have these storms here,so makes it all the more Magic.
Any thoughts?

http://www.extremeinstability.com/06-12-31b.htm

Beautiful pics.

We don't experience weather like that either. At mid-70s its cold!
I'm freezing now, and its 69 degrees!

Very nice pics indeed DSTM.
Regards,
Darthy

Now that is cold. We don't have to worry about being cold this week the weekend is going to be around 105.

Positive aspects:

Beautiful to look at.

More birds come to your heated bird bath

More birds come to your bird feeding stations once you have gotten the ice off and put out fresh food, or put out new feeding stations to avoid breaking the iced-over ones.

Some negative aspects:

Difficult to walk in/on

Even worse to drive in/on

As you can see from the pictures, many phone lines and electric lines were broken, and probably cable lines too. That means no electricity, phone service, cable service which means the stuff that runs off that stuff doesn't work and it takes a long time to repair all that stuff. While much of that I can easily do without, indeed I have no cable connected stuff, there are other things that is not so easy to do without as I do not have a backup system. Hot food - requires stove or oven which runs on electricity. The fireplace insert can do only so much. Fireplace insert blower runs on electricity, if the blower doesn't work I have to keep the insert door open in order for the heat to radiate more fully into the house and this causes the wood to burn a lot faster. Hot water heater initial startup is electric, so no hot water while the electricity is out. Of course the computer wouldn't run so I couldn't check e-mail or search for jobs much less check BleepingComputer . Wouldn't be able to chop any more wood for fuel until the ice melts: one would hope there is enough in storage to last until it does. However, we haven't succeeded in doing so yet. Furnace blowers wouldn't run without electricity. Better hope the water pipes wouldn't freeze.

Wildlife cannot get to food supplies.

If you have livestock, you've got your work cut out to make sure 1) they are safe and not frozen in the barnyard or field 2) the barns etc. aren't frozen shut 3) getting fodder and water to them. Better hope you've got enough inside otherwise it's a bunch of pickaxe work to chop through the ice to get to the hay and straw outside. 4) Making sure all the animal housing is undamaged. Might have to do some repair work or move some animals inside your own house if buildings have sustained too much damage.

You saw how the ice downed all those telephone poles? The same happens to trees which can block roads driveways, land on cars, houses, barns, chicken coops etc.

Depending on the ice situation, you might be stuck in your house until a lot of the ice melts. This happened to a co-worker. She was stuck in her house for two weeks. Windows and doors wouldn't open.

Orange Blossom

I live in Nebraska and luckily I don't live on that end of the state. I don't understand why they don't bury as much of the cables and wires as they can. A few years ago a tornado went "over" my little town and took out the power for 4 days. All the poles on in the area went down. If they had buried the stuff, it only has to come above ground every now and then, the repairs would have been a lot quicker. But sometimes it seems that the reasoning around here is "it's always been that way".

Beautifull. Thanks for sharing DSTM

Wow, truly mother nature's magic! - and thanks for sharing the link with us, DSTM.

And to add to Orange Bloosom's words about bird feeders, when in a pinch suet balls (to add fat to our poor shivering feathered friends) or balls of crunchy peanut butter rolled in bird seed works wonders for keeping them alive, too.

And for wee humans surviving outdoors, few things are better than keeping one's head toasty warm ... met a lady on the Prairies when I was there a couple weeks ago who was no fool when going out to ensure there was sufficient water for her livestock (it was -42 below with the wind) ... she uses one of those 'snap and heat starts generating' little packets, plops it on her head and then adds her hat and scarf! Must look a tad odd but what a great idea!

Actually, I keep a supply of these same 'packets' here 'just in case' we go without heat/electricity, just as Orange Bloosom mentioned - great addition to any emergency pack.