My neighbor's tree
My poor neighbors. During the Hurricane of 2008, just over four months ago, this very tree of theirs got split nearly in half. Now the ice storm has pretty much finished it off.
This is turning out to be the winter from hell - irony intended. A few weeks ago the temperature dropped to around 3 degrees Fahrenheit, which froze my water pipes, despite my efforts to prevent it. Fortunately, after my pipes thawed out there was no rupture, and I breathed a sigh of relief, prematurely, it appears. On Monday night, January 26 it started raining. The only problem was that the rain froze as it touched things on the ground. It rained and rained all night. By Tuesday morning the first wave of destruction began as the heavy ice started tearing down trees and power lines. When we lost power in the neighborhood Tuesday morning, I stood in the kitchen and wondered how long it might be out. My curiosity was answered almost immediately when my electric meter was ripped off the wall outside the kitchen: I was going to be without power for a long time was the answer. The rain continued all day Tuesday and all night as well, followed on Wednesday morning by snow, and the scale of the destruction grew. After scraping a quarter inch of ice off my car and prying open the iced over door, I found driving the roads to be akin to driving an obstacle course. One had to weave right and left to go around each obstruction, whether it be a tree, a utility pole or a dangling wire. Fortunately, I'm told ice storms this severe are unprecedented around here. Thank goodness. Once in a lifetime is enough!
My neighbor's tree
My poor neighbors. During the Hurricane of 2008, just over four months ago,
this very tree of theirs got split nearly in half. Now the ice storm has pretty much finished it off.
Broken trees
Quite a few trees look like these on my property. If you look close, you can see numerous spots where pieces
have simply broken off the trees.
Badly broken tree
Some trees look really bad. This was taken on Tuesday before the second round of the storm and the snow
that followed. So the clear ground makes the scene look deceptively benign, belying the seriousness of the
storm after just round one.
Juxtaposition of beautiful iced bushes with destroyed tree in background
Crystalline forest
Crystallized branches
If one overlooks the tremendously destructive consequences of all this ice, the effect can be quite beautiful.
Crystallized church grounds
This poor church's trees got brutalized in the hurricane. Now they got whacked again. Notice the low
hanging wires? That's a common sight everywhere.
Power lines stretched to the ground
There are lots of these too. There are also tons of power lines and telephone lines down, many draped across
roads or hanging down onto roads from above. A few utility poles are snapped in half.
Iron gazebo coated with bizarre ice formations
This wrought iron gazebo gave rise to some bizarre ice formations, which aren't very visible in this photo.
Notice the piles of tree limbs in the background? There are thousands of these littering the land. On Tuesday,
the worst of the ice storm, one could hear what sounded like explosions going off every few seconds. They
weren't explosions, but trees shattering or losing their limbs.
Ice-covered sundial
I find an ice-covered sundial a bit ironic. Notice the leaning utility pole and the severely sagging wires
in the background? My next door neighbor's power lines have sagged so much that they're resting on my fence,
my metal fence, soon to be an electrified fence!
Ice-covered street sign
Ice-covered weather vane
Ice-covered wires
The accumulated ice on these wires is quite heavy, which is why they keep falling down.
Electric meter ripped from wall
The worst consequence of the storm, for me anyway, is that the heavy power wires ripped my electric meter
right off the house. This occurred after round one of the storm, which is why the ground is not covered
with snow. The sole electrician around here is without power himself. Who knows how long I'll be
without power.
Canyon filled with ice-coated trees
Vast area covered with ice-coated trees
Ice casting of street sign
A couple of days after the storm, as the ice began to rapidly melt, I captured this shot of the ice
separating from the street sign moments before it crashed to the ground and vanished.