Ice storm update.
Posted by
GregW (aka not2fast)
Dec 9 '13, 16:49
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This is the message I sent out to my family around the country, much of which you have already heard:
We are now into Day 4 of the Epic Ice Storm of 2013.
It began raining around 6pm Thursday night just as the temperature fell below 32. It didn't stop raining until about noon on Friday. By early Friday morning trees were breaking down, taking down power lines that were not already down due to the weight of the ice.
270,000 households were without power. Mine went out around 4am but I was one of the lucky ones. My power was restored by 2pm Friday. Many others had to wait until Saturday night. About 50,000 more lost power after the initial storm. The total without electricity is down to about 20,000 today.
Saturday saw a high temp of 26. We had only a couple of hours Sunday with the temps above freezing, so nothing has dried out yet. Today it is cloudy so even though it warmed up to 34 the roads will just freeze over again tonight.
Roads into and around the city have been impassable. Big rigs were just being left on the highway because they could not move. The road crews went out yesterday with road graders to break up the ice on the interstate highways, some of which was several inches thick.
Since trucks are not getting in, grocery stores are running out of a lot of perishable items like milk, produce and bread. Schools were closed again today and will probably open late tomorrow.
Tomorrow the Sun is expected to come out and with temps rising to 39, some of the ice will be melted. It will probably not be completely clear until Wednesday when the temps get over 40.
The biggest problem right now is falling ice. Sheets of ice are sliding off the roofs of buildings, in many cases crushing parked cars. These are a couple of links to videos people have taken:
http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/national/falling-ice-damages-parked-texas-cars-video
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/24169721/ice-sheets-fall-from-plano-roof
Fortunately, I still have my truck in the garage, so we are all staying warm and dry for now.
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