The Sky is Falling!

“Okay, the freezing rain has stopped, but now all the trees are falling. Got a big ole' limb on my roof - no damage. Half a tree came down about 10 feet from where I'm typing. Power out for a bit, but back on. Gonna have to bring a chainsaw next time I go hiking.

Weird thing is that just 3 or 4 hours south of Michigan in Columbus, it's 66 degrees. Gimme some of that.”

“Hey RL. I just got in trouble with my boss because I'm skipping out of a meeting this afternoon due to the weather. I'd rather not end up in a ditch on my way home. If you can't tell, I'm a little more that a bit pi**ed off. No freezing rain here just yet, but it sounds like its on its way. A guy in Windsor died this morning, he was shoveling his driveway when a tree fell on him.”

“Sounds like y'all are having a Treebait moment. That stuff happens to her all the time.

Smiley, in the end all that matters is your health and safety. Be careful out there.”

“I know my decision was sound, its just a matter of getting this moron to understand his employees safety should be his main concern, not whether a client might end up at this meeting and we're not there to show our face. Thanks for your support.

We don't get ice storms too often, more snow than ice, thank goodness.”

“Smiley, your boss is an a$$ for not supporting your decision. Go home knowing you did the right thing. How would he feel if you weren't there to do anything at all anymore?”

“He'd immediately start looking for a replacement. He's kind of a heartless guy, the type who works 12-14 hours a day and expects the same out of you.

Its not the first time we've butted heads, and it won't be the last.”

“SG - ya did the right thing!

All S.E. Michigan people - Hang in there and be carefull. I heard the worst is yet to come....”

“As long as they pay for the hours. If not.....BYE!”

“Laqtis, you've got the day off too, don't you? Reformed, Sass and Birch have the day off (schools) and Tarabull was told to work from home and cancel all meetings. Guess I'm just jealous!”

“Damn! At least they can't TP your homestead anymore RL... lol

Be safe up there guys!”

“I feel sorry for any of you that are caught in bad ice storms. I hope all`s well and the worst of it misses you.

On Christmas night 2000, the weather turned sour and the spitting snow turned into sleet and freezing rain. Trees heavy with the extra burden of ice started sheading their limbs, but the ever increasing amounts of sleet were to much for the trees and whole trees started coming down just before it started getting light.

It soundeed like each tree was coming down on the house and everyone was awake before the second tree fell. For hours the trees fell, the power was out everywhere, no phones and no heat and it was getting steadly colder.

We pulled the shades and we gazed out on what looked like a war zone. The pines across the road were falling some of them five at a time, like match-sticks they snaped and gave way taking others with them in their rush to the ground. The pop and crack of the trees was nothing compared to the thunder of them hitting the ground and at times we could feel the ground under us shake.

I never felt so helpless in my life as I did watching all of that and wondering if the rest of my family and friends were safe.

It would take over a week to get power back on, but in many places here the power was out for over six weeks and a few even longer.

As soon as the trees quit falling we got the chainsaws out and went from house to house cutting trees off of homes and out of the roads. Soon the sounds of saws was all you could hear and it went on all day and all night. I live on tenth street and it took over a day with everyone cutting trees just to get the roads open enough to get into town.

We were luckier than most, we had a fireplace and we fired it up and kept the house warm and were able to cook for ourselves and others that had no way of cooking.

The oil lamps were brought out and lit and candles were flickering everywhere. We never lost water or gas and our water heater was gas so everyone around came to get baths and showers.

Many of our friends and neighbors came over at night and spent the night with us as well because we had the fireplace for heat, others sent their kids. We made room for everyone and it was like a big sleep over of sorts.

Yup, I got an idea what you`re going through and it`s not good if you get hit bad like we did.

I wish you all the best!”

“This is horrible. Every 5 or 10 minutes I hear another loud crash. I am absolutely surprised that we still have power. While I was shoveling today, I had to wear my bike helmet and run every time I heard some cracking. But I'm gonna miss the trees.

BTW, the freezing rain has returned. Gonna rain all night. This sucks. Pray for the trees.”

“That`s an odd feeling isn`t R L? You won`t be getting much sleep tonight...

Stay away from the trees!”

“Big old limb from my big old oak tree in my front yard just hit the ground. Just missed my Saturn in the driveway. Anything in it's way would've been wasted. I was just under it 'bout 1/2 hour ago salting the sidewalk. The fuzz just came by and pushed it aside.



I think I'm pretty lucky right now.....”

“Lastest Update - Ferndale Michigan: Transformers blowing every where. Wonder I still have power. Almost sounds like a war zone.”

“Novi area didn't get much of anything last night. Some plain old rain, but nothing more than that. Guess I was lucky!”

“Sounds like Kansas & Missouri really got hit too. Three years ago we had a heavy snowstorm in October when all of the leaves were still on the trees. Branches & downed power lines everywhere, my power was out for five days. Kind of an adventure but I was sure glad when it came back on. Using a headlamp in the house, campstove to make coffee, cooler on the front porch for all of your perishables gets to be a drag when you have to do it over a long period of time. And I really missed my hair dryer & curling iron! It was a whole week of bad hair days!”

“We get ice storms periodically in SE Michigan. But, the one that sticks out in my head is from when I was in elementary school (who else remembers the one in early 80s?).

Lost power for over two weeks. It turned out that when Detroit Edison crews were fixing lines, they accidently skipped our line. So the neighborhood west of us had power and the east half of our own neighborhood got their power back, too. We had to wait another week and a half to get ours back.

Fireplace was burning every day. We hung sheets in the doorways leaving the living room so we could keep the heat in.

We had a gas stove in the basement that we could use to cook. Kept the refrigerator food in the garage so it would stay cold (ok, frozen!)

Dad would fill up the bucket from the water heater downstairs (pump was electric) so we could use the water to "flush" the toilet, wash up, etc.

As a kid, it was one of the most exciting things that could ever happen.

It was also one of the most beautiful.”