Saturday, January 31, 2009

Ice-Storm


The most dreaded winter words are ice-storm. On Jan 27-28 a big one hit Richmond KY, and Allan Stephens sent us an account of his epic struggle with Ma Nature. 

Electricity went off at 7:30 pm, and his basement sump began to overflow.

He lit candles around the sump, then began to bail with a pitcher into a bucket. Each bucket was two gallons, or 16.68 pounds. Then up a flight of five stairs to dump in the toilet. 

A few trips would not be bad; he did this for nine hours until 5 AM, with help from wife Mary Lou and an additional, heavier 5-gallon bucket. 

On day 2, the rain turned to snow and the sump level subsided. Al went out in search of a generator; no dice. Tried McDonald's for coffee; the line was three blocks long.

Finally at Wal-Mart he found a bilge pump and marine battery, hooked it up and began to empty the sump.

By now the inside temp was 40 so he lit a wood fire and raised the house to 50. While he enjoyed some hot soup, the power returned after a 25-hour outage.

Five days later, some of his neighbors STILL do not have power. Thanks to Al for his letter, and get some rest!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enoughy snow and ice melted five days later that I could start cutting the downed limbs. One hemlock tree had uprooted and fallen over; big limbs off silver maples in front and back, some off a red maple in back, and a few off a couple of oak trees. Of course both radio antennas came down (one snapped). I am clearing one of the antennas first so I can get it back up, of course ;-)
--Allan Stephens

Anonymous said...

...and we kept the basement dry - while next-door neighbor ended up with eight inches of water. Some things are worth the effort!
--Allan Stephens