How's everyone holding up with the ice? We've been fortunate not to lose power yet. Lots of downed trees and branches, and black-outs all over the place. We're all set if we do lose power, so we spent the day salting, clearing ice and trees, trying to head-off widowmakers, and checking on family, friends and neighbours.

It doesn't seem as bad as the 1997 ice storm in Ontario and Quebec, but it caught a lot of people unprepared and there's still a long wait ahead for many of them.

Something to think about: many stores lost power for a significant amount of time, and their perisable goods will have been affected. Christmas grocery shopping is right around the corner for many of us. Check your dates and ask questions!

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4284508-ice-storm-grips-ontario-quebec-and-maritimes/

You got the worst bacpac. Right now I'm down in Missouri. Some ice but not heavy. No trees broken yet.

Pete

Good to hear from you, BPJ! Spring will be here soon - have you noticed that the days are getting longer?

Ice storms make a god-awful mess. Our weather in the West has been completely nuts, but at least the critical infrastructure is intact.

Good job checking on people. Stay safe out there, Jac.

ice is missing us here, a chance of some mornign snow tomorrow (tuesday) but otherwise temps in the 40's all week long, gonna be a brown christmas this year it looks like

to BPJ and anyone else in harm's way, stay safe

I won't even tell yas it was 80f more or less Saturday and Sunday, with an overnight low of 65-70. Rain today, then a return to the usual temps in the 50s. Just as well, people from the South can't drive in rain, never mind snow.

We got a very "light" glazing of Ice here in Iowa, followed up by six inches of snow a day or so later.

The Ice was just enough to make the roads pretty slick. The snow wasn't really heavy, and the snowblower cut right through it.

No power problems here, but even in the worst of storms we hardly ever lose power for more than a few hours. The worst was the Ice Storm of 1990, there was about an inch+ of ice across everything. I still remember the sounds of the tree's breaking, sometimes it sounded like gun-shots. We were without power for a week.

I've thought about getting a whole-house generator, NG/LP capable, but the statistical average for powerloss here in Des Moines in less than 2 hours a year. It just doesn't seem to really be worth it.

I shiver just thinking about the phrase "ice storm". Had a very bad one last year, so bad in fact that city didn't have all the broken trees cleaned up til this fall. I lost power for a couple days and internet for a week or more. Luckily though this winter, although very cold, hasn't seen a repeat of that kind of ice. I guess we're lucky that it's been so cold, just far too cold for rain (it never got above -7 F today).

We lost power in the wee hours last night, and were out for about 10 hours. We're lucky to live on the same block as an EMS depot, so tend to get back up quicker than the surrounding areas. Friends and family are still out and heading into their third day. Local reports are estimating that it could be out at least until the weekend.

We ventured out this morning for a bit of warm air and a hot breakfast, and the main roads were all clear, but many traffic lights were still out. There are trees and power lines down all over the place, and many that look like they're about to go at any moment. It looks like there's more precipitation and cold weather in the forecast tomorrow too. Yuck.

On the home-front, we're realizing how drafty this old house of ours really is, especially when it's coated in a thick sheet of ice. We've got all the emergency supplies we need, except a generator and alternate heating system, but the house cooled off quickly. Not sure how low it got but it was up to 69C a couple of hours after we got home. We were just debating bugging-out when the power came back on. We've been super-warming for the furnace and a space heater since the furnace fan started spinning again, in case we lose it again tonight.

The furnace has been on for about 11 hours now, and the house is still chilly. We put wool blankets around all the doors and windows to help cut the drafts, and everyone put on our thermal long underwear, winter hats and fleece sweaters. We brought the kids into our bedroom, threw an extra wool blanket onto the bed, powered up a battery powered lantern, read a book to the ten year old, and set up the pack-n-play as a mini playground for Little Miss I'm Wide Awake and I WANT TO PLAY! It was actually really cozy, except for the whining.

Sidenote: I hated wearing tights/leotards when I was a kid but they are my new favourite thing!! I can't keep socks or slippers on the girl, but she can't get tights off. HOORAY!!

A small successful DIY project: I tweaked a soup can stove, using an overturned Ikea utensil can as a pot stand, for a much needed cup of coffee this morning. It worked brilliantly with some tea lights!

Belated "Thank You!" to my husband and son for buying me a cheapo Coleman watch with a built in LED. It got a serious work-out, and though I switched to my Peztl e+Lite headlite to make coffee and change a diaper hands-free, it performed admirably!

Adding to tomorrow's shopping list:

-cash. There wasn't an ATM or interact machine working anywhere in our area. (BTW, by all reports, only one grocery store was open in our city, and they had no dairy or meat available that didn't come in a can or a jar, and they were completely overrun with customers.)

-more AA and C batteries. We're not out but I want to restock what we've used asap, just in case. Our crank flashlight and radio worked wonders, btw. I especially recommend giving the shake kind of flashlight to a one year old. It amused her for the longest time!

-a new piece of meat for Christmas dinner. Our frozen bird was stuffed and I'm leary about it. Hopefully a local store or farmer has something in the morning.

-more dairy goods. We lost all of our milk, cream, egg nog and eggs too. The panty is loaded but it's Christmas!


Thank goodness the rest of the family Christmas dinner I'm hosting tomorrow night was comprised of veggies and bread, which made it through just fine. Of course, we do have instant potatoes, stove top stuffing, canned cranberries and veggies, not to mention a few turkey MREs in the panty, so we could wing it if we really needed to!

Merry Christmas everyone! Stay warm!

Glad everyone is safe and sound; I saw a lot of photos of downed trees, wires, and trees on top of cars and into homes on the news this morning.

A couple of quick thoughts:
1.) Depending on the type of heat your house uses, the generator might solve both the generator and "alternate heat" needs. If your source of heat is natural gas, propane or oil, it should not take much power to run the fan and furnace. We have natural gas, and did this for many years when we lost power. The tricky part is being able to get the power into the heating system. Depending on how it is wired, you may need an electrician friend to help.

2.) Was the DIY stove for practice or out of need? If the latter, I really suggest picking up a coleman or equivalent 2 burner propane stove. Simple, easy and works well. I think its safe enough to use indoors with adult supervision and in a safe location. Two burners should be enough to get everyone something hot. . .

Thanks for the report and good luck with the next round.