This is the first one...
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| Trees and power lines in my neighborhood, covered in ice. |
Evidently, during the night, we were struck by an ice storm.
It turns out, Michigan has been hit with the worst ice storm we've seen in years! We got a coating of between half an inch to three-fourths of an inch of ice. On everything. Can you imagine? The last really bad ice storm I can remember was back around 1977 (I did live out-of-state for thirteen years after that, so if there were any bad ones in those years, I don't know of them).
States-of-emergencies are declared in multiple counties across Michigan, and utility workers are here from 13 states - all missing Christmas with their families - to help DTE (www2.dteenergy.com) and Consumers (www.consumersenergy.com) get our power restored. God Bless them all for that.
Anyway, I roughed it for the first two days, staying in my freezing home with the cats, but then it just got too cold, so on Christmas Eve, I caved and spent the night at my brother's house in Lake Orion. After our Christmas Eve family festivities, I went
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| A kerosene heater - something I will have before next winter! |
No power meant no house-alarm and I was very nervous leaving my house vulnerable like that during a huge black-out. Luckily, my neighbor stayed in his house (he has a kerosene heater - something I am determined to have by next winter so I'll be ready for the next big power outage!), and he kept an eye on things for me.
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| A lot of downed tree branches throughout my neighborhood |
People are doing dangerous things to keep warm, too. Just in the first three or four days of the outage, there were three major house fires in my neighborhood because people are doing anything they can think of to keep warm. I've been hearing about people bringing their gas barbecue grills inside to keep warm. It's a miracle nobody has been killed, or even seriously injured.
I ended up spending two nights - Christmas Eve night and Christmas night - at my brothers house. When I came home on the day after Christmas to take care of the cats, the power miraculously came back on! I was never so glad to hear my loud, ancient, asthmatic, clunker of a furnace kick on in my life! It took four hours for my house to warm up. While I was waiting for it to warm up, I went to Kroger's to replace the food I had lost in my fridge and freezer. I lucked out. I didn't lose much at all. Because I never opened my freezer during the outage, I didn't lose any frozen stuff, and that shocked me. I thought for sure I'd lose it all.
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| More downed branches, and everything covered in ice. |
So, it has been seven days since the storm struck, and I have had my power back on for two days. I couldn't be more grateful. There are still a lot of people who don't have their power back yet. On the news they're saying some people might be without power well into next week. I feel really bad for them. I was only without power for three days, and it was miserable. I can't imagine how miserable it must be for the people who are still without their power and are faced with the prospect of having to wait another three to five days before having it restored.
Well, it's over for me, and I am making plans for the next big power outage. I've already ordered a lithium battery powered lantern, and I will be getting a kerosene heater before next winter. Come hell or high water. There will be no more sitting in the dark freezing my butt off during an ice storm!
Until next time,
Robin in Flint
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