Ice Storm 2009

We're beginning to thaw out here in NW Arkansas. If you're not from here, you might not be up on the ice storm we've faced this week. The weather started to turn bad on Monday night and by Tuesday morning, things were pretty much frozen solid. It was kind of eerie, sitting in the house and hearing trees cracking and collapsing all through the neighborhood. Some sounded like gunshots. Others sounded like thunder. We would hear the noise and try to figure out where it was falling - and praying that it wasn't falling on someone's house. By the time the sleet and ice stopped falling on Wednesday, roads were pretty much impassable, tens of thousands of people were without electricity, thousands of trees were devastated, and homes and automobiles were damaged. Even today, the grocery stores in our area were still closed and thousands will be out of power for at least a couple more days. Temperatures should get above freezing tomorrow, so the thaw should start.

We have been fortunate at our house. Our power was out for an hour or so on Tuesday night and a couple of hours today. The cable (and internet) was out for a couple of days, but overall we didn't suffer much. We got to spend a couple of days together, watching shows we had DVR'd and playing cards and dominoes. The trees in our yard (and we have several) did suffer quite a bit of damage. At least one is totally destroyed and others may be irreparable harmed. But we are safe and warm and blessed.

One of the greatest blessings came on Wednesday afternoon. There was a knock on the door and a group of our neighbors were there to help with cleaning up our yard. (Ours was probably hit the worst on our block.) So 9-12 of us, with a couple of chain saws, spent a couple of hours cutting up branches and stacking them up to be hauled away. We chat with our neighbors occasionally, but we don't know most of them very well. So for them to take the initiative to help us out as they did really warmed our hearts. We are planning another work day on the street on Saturday. The temperature should be in the 50's so we should get a lot of work done.