Ice Storm 2009

I have stolen the infamous title the news crews are calling our most recent and catastrophic weather event, Ice Storm 2009. This was the worst ice storm that Justin and I ever remember and the first time that such a weather event has personally effected us in such a way. We are both pretty devastated. The weather event started on Monday when school closed early and I had to pick Katelyn up from school early. We were lucky enough to have power that evening but the damage on the following day made up for that. Justin called me about noon on Tuesday and said that the limbs were starting to fall out of the trees and he wanted to know where I thought a safe place for his truck would be. I laughed at him because I thought he was overexagerating. Little did I know that those limbs were the size of small trees and that they were falling all around us. By the time he picked me up from work and we made it home the damage was pretty bad to our cars and the police came around our neighborhood and told everyone that they had to leave because it was too dangerous for us to stay. When we returned two days later you could not even see our house from the street! Luckily our house escaped with minimal damage. There is one spot on the roof of our porch where a limb has loosened the siding and our fence has been knocked down but other than that there is just a lot of debris to be removed. We are still not sure at this point if any of our trees can be salvaged. The worst damage was done to our cars and I have kicked myself everyday since the abovementioned phone call that I did not tell him to move his truck somewhere away from the trees. His truck's antennae was knocked off and there are dents and scratches on both fenders and the hood and his front windshielf has a huge crack. My car is worse with a huge dent in the roof with the paint peeling already, several dents in the hood, fenders, and truck, a broken rear windshield, the driver's side rearview mirror was knocked off and a tree limb was shoved into the vent between the front window and the hood of the car. We take them to the adjuster's on Tuesday but think that there is a possibility that they will total the car since roof damage is so hard to fix and the car is not worth a lot anyway.

We were able to get power yesterday afternoon even though SWEPCO told us it would be Tuesday. We were more fortunate than our neighbors as they stopped the line at our house and more fortunate than Justin's parents as it may be two weeks until they have power again. Kim's mom and dad brought them a generator so they can keep their freezer/refridgerator going through all of this. As I type this Justin is out (with bronchitis I might add) using his new "toy," a chainsaw, cutting up limbs as fast as he can. The insurance company told us not to touch anything until an inspector could come but the cleanup must be done and it really is too dangerous to stay in the house without doing some damage control. There are still limbs all over the neighborhood that are still falling due to the thawing conditions in this sixty degree weather. Justin is trying to remove these types of limbs from our trees so that no more damage is done to our vehicles. We are leaving my car at the apartments down the street for now just in case. Please pray for everyone in Northwest Arkansas that was effected by this storm!