I was a little surprised to log on today and NOT find a thread going about the ice storm in Oklahoma. It is a classic example of many things that have been discussed here - whether to hunker down or bug out, how long to prepare for, etc.

Ice storms, as well as tornadoes, are the biggest factor where I live. We had an almost identical situation here a few years ago. (our 3rd ice storm in several years) THICK ice all over everything, power out for over a week in town, 2 weeks in outlying areas - in 20 degree weather. If you want to try to get out, first you have to chip the ice off your car (can take hours), if as in my case, no garage. There was no where close by to bug out to, since all the hotels were full or without power. for a farther destination, the interstate may be salted, but it's the getting there. Here we had no street lights in a city of 250k, trees down everywhere across the streets and roads....all the trees became our enemy with huge limbs crashing down on streets, houses, and people from the weight of the ice. (I've heard there have been 20-some fatalities in the OK crisis-all people in vehicles)

I like to compare gear, and speculate on the what-ifs on this site too. Many have experience during wilderness camping to guide their preparations, but in a "situation," it gets real really fast, and like the California fires and Oregon mudslides, PREPAREDNESS is what this site is all about. We should view these emergencies as ways to learn, so we can be prepared as possible when it's our turn.

Ice storms are a problem here in Maryland also. We often lose power because the local utility has yet to understand that ice on trees cause the limbs and trees to fall on their power lines, thus causing power to go out.

Our response is to bug in. This means generators (primary, and a back up) for heat (gas furnace, small power requirement) and hot water. We have a gas stove. Ice storms have not yet cut water or gas (all underground). Thus, gas for the generator(s) and food and we are snug until the electric company gets power back to us.

In the scheme of things, a non-minor but reasonably handled problem if you have made the necessary preparations and lucky enough to have gas instead of all electric. (Gas heat and gas stove was a criteria for our house.)

I think those ETSers that were affected are without power and so can not post. Those with power just shrug and continue on our merry way.

Perhaps after a week or two without power the rest of the nation might look for some "survivor titillation" stories, but for the most part OK/KS don't show up on most people's radars.

-Blast

I've never been in an ice storm, and hope I never am. I'd rather have a good old-fashioned prairie blizzard.

When Ontario and Quebec (and I assume New York and Maine) were hit hard by the ice storm in '98, and I saw the pictures, that was the impetus to get a safe and efficient wood stove in my house.

Hope everyone stays safe.

In my area we had a about 1/4 of ice on everything...except the roads. Ground temp was too warm. We lost power for about 3 hours. I made great use of my EDC light (JetBeam Mk II) at work. I also have an LED lantern, snacks and bottled water, basic tools, batteries and a radio at work. In my area, the storm was a minor inconvenience.

40 mile north of me ~250,000 people are without power. Many are without water, too.

todd

I'm guessing that I'm about 40 miles north of you Todd. lol

Things are quite the mess up here. Glad to hear you made out a little better. A significant number of folks lost power on Sunday but ours held on until about 0300 on Monday morning.

We had a nice one a couple years ago too 2004 IIRC. Even days afterward I still had over 1" tick ice on top of my truck, I had went out to lowes at lunchtime to get more stuff to fix my house where the tree had fallen on it and shoved that layer of ice off the top of the cap and when it hit the ground it shattered and a big chunk flew up and hit me and I was bleeding from it.
It had rained and turned to ice here and yould hear trees falling all night long and one fell on the line from the transformer to out house and ripped the pole and meter box off our house but we still had power. Insurance cpmpany told me to call and tree service and electrician but both were booked up for months so I made a hardware store trip and bought a new box and put it on the wall, bought a chainsaw and cut the tree off then my neighbor who is an electrician came over and clipped the live wires carefully so we could put the pole back up and we fed the wires through it and reconnected them.
We were lucky, many people were without power for a week or more and bugged out to hotels and such that still had power. My gas tank in my truck was pretty full but my wife's car was low so I drove out in the evening a day or so after the storm first hit and it was odd to be driving down a normall lit street and see everything dark, from houses to businesses. I finally found an open gas station who seemed to be raising the price between every customer and topped off her tank.

Ice in mid-Missouri has been a challenge too. For the last few days my scanner has received countless accident calls. Ice is causing a lot of destruction. On the highway, I was narrowly missed by a huge thick sheet of ice that flew off a car about six car lengths ahead of me. The ice sheet slammed onto the road a few feet in front of me. I'm glad it didn't come through the windshield. Iced down trees and powerlines have fallen across the roadways, on cars, and houses. On Monday, a 56 year old man was cutting down a tree when another tree fell on him. He didn't survive. This probably sounds obvious but if you're out there be extra careful around ice laden trees and power lines. They have come down rather suddenly.

Thats why I shoved the sheet off the top of mine into a parking lot, I didn't want to come off later while driveing.

I have a sister and her family near Tulsa. They have no electricity or phone due to ice. Yet, they are well prepared and are doing fine. They thanked me over and over for the generator I gave them when they moved there Oct of 06.
kmat