We have been stuck in the ice age here in Ky. For 11 days we had no power. Many Ky. residents still do not and will not have power for a couple more weeks.
The first 3 days, there was no power county wide. This did not pose a problem at first. Because the first day, when you dont know how bad it is, its not so bad. We had kerosene heaters so we went to town when we lost power about 7:30 or so Tuesday morning. We took our jugs and got 20 gallons of kerosene. An hour or so later, I learned that the power was now gone all over the county. There was nothing open. No Gas stations, no stores, no nothing. My husband had been called to work at 3 a.m. at the nursing home where he is maintence supervisor. I tried to call him to see what was going on and how long this would last. No phone service. Tried the cell phone...its gone to. We tried to get some news on the battery radio. Our radio station was out also. Just before the batteries died I managed to get a station about 60 miles away. I heard there would be no kerosene for the heaters and no fuel for the cars. They were saying just stay in your homes. There are power lines down on the roadways. I woke my son up and told him we had to get to some kerosene. We got in his 4 wheel drive and drove over to the next county hoping they had not been hit that hard. They had not. We bought another 30 gallons of kerosene. We had to drive about 60 miles on one lane because of trees in the road. None the less we got there and back without incident. So we fired up the heaters and then I became worried about my daughter and her family. My son said he will go see about them. He tried and could not get to thier road for the broken poles and trees. So we decided thier is nothing to do but wait. And wait we did for three days. Still no stores open. The 3rd day my son and hubby finally got to my daughter. They were all fine. No power but they had a heater too and was cooking on a coleman camp stove. I later learned that they went where we went and got kerosene. We just missed them by a few minutes. They went out the back way and were able to get out thier road that way. Hubby just stayed at work. They had residents in the dining room on cots to keep them warm. It was cold outside so we dragged the freezer outside, shook ice off the trees and dropped it in the freezer on the food. I was thinking any time that the Red Cross or someone would show up with generators, fuel or something. They did after 3 days. The first thing that opened was the bulk plant that supplies all the gas stations with fuel. The National Guard brought a generator to the bulk plant and hooked it up so that they could pump fuel and kerosene. That helped! One of our stores opened up. They had no power but went in with flashlights and got heaters and what few generators they had. Of course you can imagine how many people were still standing in line waiting for one. They promised to get more the next day, which they did. The roads were so hazordous that you could not go get one somewhere else and trucks could not get to us. A little at a time after the first week it began to warm up. Trouble for the freezer sitting outside full of beef. But by the time we knew we had to do something different, the nursing home where hubby works had thier power back. So we loaded the freezer in the truck and took it to hubbys work place and put it in his shop. We bought a camper trailor last fall and had not used it yet. But you have to have propane or electric to operate and we had neither. We finally did get our hand s on some propane after several days and were able to cook in the camper. Then a very gracious person loaned us a generator. We had news on the T.V. We were estatic! We couldnt run anything else but we had news at last. We learned that what was predicted to be 3 in. of snow covered the western half of the state with an in. of ice and now we were going to get 3 in. of snow! Cell towers finally came up the 6th day. I got electric yesterday. Now there are trucks all over town set up selling generators! Go figure! You could not even find a battery in this town.
If I sound like I am bashing the Red Cross and our county goverment, I am. I know it takes time to get things done but should it take 3 days when you have residents in a nursing home with no heat. My husband did not stay home and wait either. He went to work and called some people who came and assisted him in running gas lines into the halls, hung gas heaters and warmed everyone up till the power was restored.
Our electric Co-Op has done a wonderful job. They have been under tremendous pressure and working round the clock in very cold weather. They started calling for help almost immediately. We now have 13 different power companies here assisting from several different states. Last count I heard, we had 1400 utility poles down in our county alone. When it warmed up and the ground started to grip thier trucks in mudd, they had bull dozers pulling thier trucks from one utility pole to the next.
There is a reason I am sharing this with you. I have lived in this county for 40 years and never been without power more than a few hours. But folks, it happens. There are some things you cannot help....like the phones not reaching your family. But you can be prepared! We we not. But we were resourceful enough to get by.(Untill we got popane we cooked on the kerosene heater and the grill.)
Lessons I have learned from this: Always keep some batteries; If the power goes out, go run some water in buckets, jugs,ect.; ( I forgot to mention that with no power to pump our water from the pumping station, we had no water)If you do not have a generator, BUY ONE...it will at least help you stay informed about what is going on; I already had heaters...If you do not, GO BUy ONE; unless it is unsafe...check on your elderly neighbors. If they cant get out and they have no power, they can die quickly; NEVER<NEVER run a generator indoors. I know that sounds like common sense but there have been several fatalities from this; I always have canned food but a lot of people dont. You should always have enough food on hand for at least 3 days minimum; If you have a camper, keep propane in it; If you have a coleman camp stove, keep cylinders on hand; Make sure you have a working flash light;
I may never go through this again and I pray I dont. But I now have everything I need if I do. You have to think of safety first. Then get a plan and take care of yourself. It will probably be 3 or more days before you can depend on help from anyone else.
I want to ask that everyone who reads this, please take this seriously. We have had several deaths. Some from carlessness and some from people who were not able to help themselves. You need to be prepared! If you have a generator sitting in your garage and you never need it, it is better than to need it and have a nice tidy, empty garage!
Also, there are still several people in our county without power. And there are a lot of people in the extreme Western part of Ky. without power. Please say a little prayer for thier safety and all the crews out there working to help them. Thanks.
