Ice storm - 2-1/5 days without power

Can't edit the title - should be 2-1/2 days, duh...

The area around I-44 in Southwest Missouri was devestated by the worst ice storm since we've been here (29 years). On Friday we received record daily precipitation all falling as rain with the temperatures around 30 degrees. This persisted on and off through Sunday with the total precipitation reaching 3-1/2 inches. We lost power at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday following large booms as ice laden branches touched the primary electric lines across the street. We got our generator going in about 45 minutes after discovering the battery was dead. This was odd since I had just charged it in anticipation of the forecasted storm. One of the car batteries worked well as a replacement. The generator (5500 watts) is wired in to the house circuits with a Generac load transfer switch which will not allow dual feed. This is a safety issue for workers out on the line trying to restore service. The generator ran well through Saturday night when it began to run roughly, then died. Not amount of effort (by me) could get it going. Plan B.
We got out the two kerosene heaters (also tested in the Fall and got them fired up in the greenhouse. They were able to hold the GH temps to a minumum of 40 degrees. (Outside temp never got much below 26.) One of the heaters went out overnight apparently due to a bad wick. We made an emergency run to Lowes who had pallets full of large kerosene heaters they were selling at 50% off. Bless them - they have earned my loyalty. Fortunately the heaters were full and we had three gallons of kerosene in reserve, for by Saturday afternoon there was none to be had. Power came back on Monday at noon. DSL (phone lines) just came back this morning.

Springfield looks like a war zone with a high of 75% power outages. From a high spot it looks like someone with a giant brush hog came through and sheared off the tops of all the trees. There are numerous large trees on the ground and low hanging wires everywhere, making it difficult to get around. Moral - Mother Nature is an charge. But you can survive the worst she has to offer with proper planning. It was a horrible three days but I pity the poor souls who are still without power. It's 7 degrees here this morning.
Dave.

This message was edited Jan 16, 2007 3:55 PM

Wow Dave, way to be prepared. I pity all those that weren't. I just love hearing that Lowes sold those heaters on sale, very cool.

And that's why I won't depend on electricity as my only heat source! My greenhouse has both propane and electric heaters. We had an ice storm this weekend as well but never lost our power. Folks a few miles away did for two days. We were just lucky I guess.
Today it's alternating between snowing and sunshine.

MollyD

Boy, when I hear these weather stories-yours, so cal and the frigid temps that they have been having and the ones that I have lived thru here ( 20" of snow at one fall, 14" another time, numerous ice storms, lack of power for days at a time), I think so longingly of my old life in Hawaii!
I have it down pat by now-finally learned to drain the generator of gas out of the carb before shutting it down, Stabil in the gas tank, plenty of firewood stacked on the deck under a roof, plywood over the generator and all the gas cans filled. Firewood inset cleaned out and a fire ready to light inside it. Brooms ready to get the snow off the grhouse from the outside, 5 gallon buckets filled with water in the grhouse incase we lose power, and water filled cont in the house...grocery store run...lol can't forget that-me and another million people at the store all going for the bottled water ( I have learned to walk fast directly for the water, then the milk, then all the good stuff like candy for when the cabin fever hits!) Am I forgeting anything?? lol I can only hope that we miss it all this winter.

Western St. Louis county, where the country club I work at is, was also devastated. I'd taken the weekend off, and went back today. I've never seen anything like it. Devistation is the only adjective that comes to mind. A conservative estimate would be 400 trees on the course with severe damage, with probably 100 or so having to be completely removed. Eight of us today were picking up limbs, while three ran the "chipper". We got about a dozen trees done. =(

I can't recall two major ice storms in one season. The first one was bad, but this was way worse. One tree, a sixty foot White Pine, had only about three foot of green left, at the very top. EVERY branch below the top was gone, all laying in a ring around the tree, the remaining stubs about a foot long, all the way down. Simply amazing. And, as Dave said, it looked like someone had just come along and topped every tree in sight. Even some absolutely gorgeous Weeping Willows were split right in half. We were already geared up to plant about 200 trees this spring due to a major renovation. That number will surely go up dramatically. I'll see if I can't get some pictures of some of the damage. The *only* good thing I can see was none of the trees fell across any greens. *whew*

I hope everyone without power gets it back soon. Single digit temps is no way to spend a night without heat. Good luck to those of you having to endure that.

Eggs

I am truly sorry for your storm problems. I like Springfield, every time I stop at Bass Pro shop, I think that it looks like a great place to live. In your picture it looks like there is a solar greenhouse in the back ground. Is this so? If it is yours, can you comment on it? We have ice storms here in southern CT as well, and I am prepared with kerosene heaters and back up power, but I always sweat power loses. A large orchid grower near here lost his entire crop one year because his generators failed. Good luck and I hope things get back to normal quickly.

Yes, that's my greenhouse. There's more info at my fanily home page at http://geocities.com/ne0b/Plants.htm
The GH is featured on the current cover of Hobby Greenhouse magazine along with a story. It's solar only during the day, burning lots of natural gas at night. We've been in single digits lows for the last two nights, and haven't been above freezing since the storm started. I lent out my kerosene heaters on Tuesday and my generator today to fellow grower who lost almost everything he had. He had an 80' oak tree come down right in the middle of his 1,000 gallon propane tank. They had to evacuate the little draw he lives in when the tree came down. Very bad luck indeed. Another picture is attached. This one is looking out across the street at my neighbor's frontage.
Dave.

Our sympathy to all who had to endure the hardship that the weather delivered. There was only sleet and iced roads here. We too have been thru ice storms which has left us w/o electricity for 10 days.

D_D you said your generator ran rough and died? In your last post, you loaned it. What did you find to be the problem. I am asking as we have a Generac and it offered the same misery during hurricane Rita. We found it had a low oil cut off sensor. It was not low on oil but the sensor malfunctioned. Out of necessity, we bypassed it and kept a "double, extra" close watch on the oil.

We turn off the fuel and run till out of gas when preparing for storage. We too use Stabil and have had no problem with cranking the generator. This has been successful for at least 8 years now.

It is difficult to say how lovely the photos are when one knows the devastation the ice caused. Glad the ice has moved on and pray the rest will be returning to civilization soon. pod

In my hours of frustration and fatigue I didn't do a good enough job of cleaning the spark plug. Monday morning I did it right and with a big puff of smoke she roared right to life. (The GH was OK overnight with two kerosene heaters = Plan "B".) Mine also has an low oil sensor and I also did a "bypass" with no joy. I also always kill the engine by shutting off the fuel.

After thinking about it, although I run the generator at least every other month, much of the gas that was in the tank was over two years old. Even with the additive it ended up fouling/carboning the plug. I'm going to stop leaving gas in the tank until fall of each year and be sure I either burn it off or empty it come Spring. Although I might need the generator for a power failure in warm months, gas is always available and even on a hot day I can use lots of spray water for short-term cooling in the GH.

Last Sunday after the first two days of ice, many gas stations were out of regular (and there was no kerosene to be found). I'll be sure we always have the cars full of gas when the next storm looms. With a siphon pump it's an easy source of 20 gallons of fuel.

I agree fully. Hate to store gas when it keeps so poorly. Do the kero fumes from the heater bother the GH plants? Is your GH large enough that they wouldn't harm the plants...

GH is about 20x30'. I've never noticed any damage from some use in the past but I've heard other Bromeliad growers say that the "fumes" will initiate blooming on mature plants. We know that Ethylene and Acetylene gas will both do it, so we'll see in 4-5 weeks!

Dave, we had one similar to this three years ago. The trees won't recover for another several years at least. In my case, although I had power, all of my neighbors were out. No GH yet, but I had a sump pump in the basement and no generator available. It was scary, most especially with the sound of breaking branches all night, and the constant blue flashes in the sky from power lines.

I haven't been able to afford a genny yet, but I am hopeful I can get one one of these years to at least keep the sump pump, the furnace, and the fridge running. Believe it or not, I can do without the 'puter. :)

I'm hopeful everything in your GH was OK, and I am glad to hear you and your loved ones got through relatively unscathed.

Eggs, I am so sorry to hear about all of those lovely trees harmed. :( A cemetery near me known for its botanical diversity lost several of its best specimens in our ice storm, but from the photos Dave posted it seems your damage may have exceeded ours. We had at most an inch and a half of solid ice accumulation on branches and power lines. It sounds like you may have had up to 3". Mother nature is definitely in charge, as much as we like to think we might have the upper hand.

We still have "all you can haul" mulch piles scattered around town.

Take care,

-Joe G.

This message was edited Jan 19, 2007 1:11 AM