Ice Storm - Oklahoma

This was our damage. Many places were much worse.

	The weather reports warned us of it but we did not imagine the scope. We thought it would be just another unusually cold day in Oklahoma. Then the rain began to fall and freeze Thursday morning, January 28. Within minutes everything outside was coated with a fine layer of ice. It was pretty at that stage. Everything looked surreal and shiny as if it were a lacquered model of everything outside. But the glossy coat grew and thickened. Tree branches began to droop, utility lines to sag. When the rain finally stopped, the branches were three, four, five times their normal size. The weight simply tore them apart. Utility lines broke under the weight or simply pulled hundreds of utility poles down like dominoes. We survived the worst of it. After six days, the electric service is back on but we are warned it is tentative. More trees could fall and break lines. The electric utility crews were making some progress after six days without power, then yesterday a huge radio tower collapsed from the weight of the ice, fell on four electric substations nearby and put several small towns just north of us, back in the dark.
	The water pressure went down for a day but recovered completely. The water heater is gas operated so we had hot water. The tap water is not (for us at least) drinkable but we had just stocked up on bottled water a few days before the storm hit. One controlling factor was the outside temperature. The thermometer hovered at exactly 32 degrees and kept the trees and everything above ground level frozen. The ground however is always a couple degrees warmer so the streets thawed quickly making driving relatively safe. Safe that is, except for the falling trees and power lines and huge chunks of ice, of course. The lasting tragedy will be the trees. So many are lost and those that aren’t will be badly disfigured for a long time. Very few escaped damage. There will probably be some damage to our roof where branches fell and then huge chunks of ice as the thaw began. Our worst will be the loss of our cottonwood trees, they did not fare well; I fear they will be lost completely.
	We have a gas fireplace which keeps the central part of our house warm easily. Annie and I caught up on our ongoing Gin Rummy game over the five nights. We played by candle and torch light. More about that in Twilight's Blog, Learning Curve On The Ecliptic. We have it pretty good. Others do not. Two of my children live minutes away and they checked on us often. My daughter is “media specialist” with Cotton Electric (a rural electric company) and was able to keep us well informed of the recovery progress. My son is master of everything mechanical and has licenses to prove it. He has every tool ever made and can repair anything. He instructed us on how to keep the house warm and how to protect the water lines. We felt quite safe. This picture shows some twigs after a couple days of thawing.
	In the midst of the ice storm, we were visited by a Horned Lark. I thought it was a Lincoln Sparrow at first, they are about the same size. But I spotted the yellow collar and looked him up. This is our 54th variety of bird to visit our back garden feeders. I wish it were a better shot but the time was brief and it is through a window. Twigs coated with a pound or so of ice are visible on the ground.

The Profile (more than you really wanted to know) is here.

Lost Gallery The rescue mission for battered and abused orphan photographs.

For more about Double Exposures see this page in Lost Gallery.