Anyone Else Trapped in Ice Storm 2013? My Marathon Was Cancelled :(

Not this time!

I was in the middle of the Ice Storm of 76 (near Buffalo NY) and I know what they can be like.
Branches were coming down everywhere.
Every smallest twig was encased in inches of ice - trees would explode under the weight.
When I came home from school I went to look at some branches that had come down in our back yard.
As I was leaving I hear some tinkling/creaking and I started to run.
I heard a crash like a chandelier had come down and chunks of ice were sliding ahead of me on the ice covered snow as I ran.
Another branch had come down right where I had been standing.
We eventually lost power and since our sump pump couldn't run our basement flooded (we moved things higher and put things up on cinder blocks so we didn't have much damage from that.
Our Mom came down with pleurisy and having no heat made things worse.
Finally we evacuated to our friends house in the next town over (they had no power either but they had a gas stove and furnace so they were warm).
We brought some clothes and sleeping bags.
Our Mom drove but I'll never forget the fog - it was so thick you literally could not see your hand on the end of your arm if you held it out.
We had to weave our way through town - so many trees and power lines were down and transformers were exploding.
After many detours we made it to our friends house (a trip that usually takes 20 minutes took more than 3 hours) - it's is FREAKY driving when you can NOT see where you are going.
More than once we had to stop to drag branches off the road if they were light enough to move.
Mom was put right to bed (she was so sick - they started feeding her hot chicken broth) - we had other kids to play with and it was a big adventure for us.
After 3 days things melted off, Mom was much better and power was starting to be restored we could go home again.
There was a lot of firewood the next year from all the downed trees.
My Mom had a generator system installed.

Take lot's of pictures!
Write down what you feel.
Cut out and/or print news articles.
Make a scrap book so you can remember all this when it's over.
Take it out and look at it again on the hottest day of the year.
You (and your kids and grandchildren) will love it in the years to come!

Additional:
If you don't have any sand to grit surfaces then kitty litter works great.
Ashes will work but they are messy and better used on roads rather than sidewalks where it might track back into your house.
We use to keep some in the car at all times.

We're in Plano and it's pretty crappy here. Hubby did make it out to pick up daughter from her condo and bring her here yesterday.

Of all the bad timing, one of our Cocker's woke up paralyzed in his back. We only got on streets so daughter could spend time with him. We couldn't get to the ER animal clinic due to roads so we stayed up with him all night to make him as comfortable as possible. This am hubby and I made it to the vet, stayed with him until he passed and now back home.

When it rains it pours. We just got our poodle out of surgery about 3 weeks ago for a cataract. He'll be fine, he has a new bionic eye now! The Cocker was 14.5 and prognosis was bad for him. He had surgery in June so basically I guess we bought him an extra 6 months.

Hubby is taking daughter home soon so she can study for finals next week.

It's the first time in 26 years they have cancelled the children's parade.

Good luck on your run in Feb! Stay warm!

Our area is not well equipped for this type of weather. Like you, we have multiple inches of ice. A lot of limbs are breaking, trees splitting. We have 1 branch propped up in hopes to save it.

ETA; hubby tried to get daughter back to her condo. Our street is a sheet of ice and worse than it was at 8:30 this am. They got stuck, got out and she's staying over tonight as well. We have a big puzzle were working on while watching football and talking about our favorite memories of Fluffy!

Thank you to J. T. It has been a somber day but we are all doing well. I appreciate your kind words.

We were supposed to work on a project for my son's scouts Friday night and then the kids had a delivery route they were doing to earn money today, and those are cancelled. 2 practices and a game cancelled, 2 birthday parties cancelled, and we're not going to church tomorrow. Next weekend will be "double time" on all the events. We're not really sweating it though...
we're kind of treating it like a little lazy holiday.

Yesterday we went outside for walks, but I have to admit I was scared of walking on such thick layers of ice that even if I really dug my heels in or stomped, there wasn't even a hint of a footprint! It kind of hurt my knee so I was scared of the front yard, but the backyard was softer and we were able to play out there a bit, and explore with my little guys. My husband took them on long walks and they did "guy stuff" while I wrapped presents, cooked chili, and prepared cocoa for them upon their return. We watched a Christmas movie yesterday and today, have been spending more time reading and catching up on our chores, we baked and decorated Christmas cookies together, played some boardgames, I dug out our "Dangerous Book For Boys" and the guys have been going through that and trying out some projects from that book today. We decorated the tree and inside of the house, I've been cleaning out the closets while they play video games. We're VERY thankful that we have power and gas heat even if we did lose electricity (I did pull out the flashlights and we have our emergency equipment in place: room lanterns, weather radio, corded phone, etc all in one spot all the time...but we haven't needed anything like that, thank goodness). Today we have wassail in the slow cooker, we're making sausage balls, peanut butter fudge, and gumbo, and when the guys nap I'll fill out Christmas cards.

I think B had the right idea----I'm gonna go get dressed and see if we can go take some neat photos. But the roads and sidewalks are just ridiculously slick here. We'll stick to walking in the yards. I want it all to magically melt immediately by tomorrow afternoon OR stay so frozen that the roads are completely impassable for another few days (one extreme or the other) because my friend is leaving town Monday if she can, and we will keep her preteen son for a week while she's gone.....that's fine and even fun if the weather is good enough to get out of the house, but no good for anyone at all if we can't leave! We're fine, the 4 of us together, but preteens in a house set up for little ones, with nothing to do, and not related to you so they haven't been taught your beliefs on "boredom"........YIPES. I'm anxious to see how this coming week pans out. :)

I'm with you though----I love snow and have no issue with that. The ice though, we're just not equipped for it. Wrong roads, wrong tires, not a grain of sand or salt anywhere around us. NOT driving, and I honestly haven't seen a car pass by since Thursday evening.

We're stuck too, but at least the power has stayed on. Steep driveway, if I could get out, and that's questionable, there is no way I could get back in. Two people stuck on the road in front of my house. 2-5 inches of ice in back yard depending on drifts. Kids have loved it, whole neighborhood has been sledding down my driveway, lol. @AKmom, it was actually warmer in Anchorage today than in Dallas. You are right though, we have no clue how to drive in ice out here, myself included, which is why my heiney is staying inside.

ETA: forgot to answer your question! Sledding, rainbow loom, and baking cookies are taking up our time.

Yep. You got it worse. We have about 2 1/2 -3 inches of ice. H came home Just before it came in. We are house burnt today and went about a mile to a tiny restaurant. I question our wisdom! Some people were stuck in the parking lot.

Our driveway is a sheet of ice. The back roads are tracks with occasional glimpses of actual road.

We knew my son's Lsat was postponed from today so he went to try to go up to Alliance this morning to work and the service road to 35 was blocked by semi trucks who had probably been there all night.

Luckily we did have warning and I stocked up on food. We put gas in the cars. Some of our trees still had leaves on them and the ice is dragging them down but no breakage yet. I guess we had more sleet than the freezing rain, thank goodness.

This time of year for us ice storms are our normal. We always have at least a few days every December when we have this strange warm front move in and it causes freezing rain, and thick ice on everything. It is interesting to me to see how those who are not used to this type of weather deal with it.

A big hug from a native New Englander to all mamas and families affected by this storm. I've dealt with my share of blizzards, cold, and ice storms and I know how dangerous it can be even in an area equipped and accustomed to dealing with it.

Stay warm. Stay safe. Enjoy what you can & have patience with yourself in dealing with the rest.

Hug --

We are in Keller. I think Denton got hit a little bit worse, but we are right there with you. Hoping for a thaw tomorrow and grateful not to be one of those souls stuck on the highway (last I heard some have been there for 24 hours!) or families without power. A friend of mine lives in Alaska and they are actually warmer than we are today. :) It is a bummer about the Marathon. I know a lot of people are disappointed about that news.

We had friends over yesterday for baking Christmas goodies. A little bit of sliding through the ice for some outside fun (although today it's been a little too slippery). We baked a gingerbread house yesterday and decorated it today. Lots of movies, books, snacks and cuddling under blankets. Not altogether terrible. Sounds like we may get a little thaw out tomorrow...fingers crossed!

I'm on the east side of Plano and it's not too bad, considering. About 1/2 of ice on the car. Some ice on the trees, but no branches down. I made sure to turn the heat up all the way in my car before I turned it off Thursday night so I can remote start it before I start scraping. And I brought the scraper inside. I've had my doors frozen shut before from ice storms. I have no desire to get out in this until I have too. Son's school and my office closed down Friday, so I don't have to worry about anything until Monday morning. Although I may scrape the car off Sunday so I don't have to get up too early.

Yep us too here in Sachse. School/daycare closed Friday, so at home we all were this weekend. Got caught up on laundry and spent some quality time with my hubby and two boys 11 & 4, but now they are driving me bonkers haha. Our only casualty was our large willow in the backyard split down the middle from the weight of all the ice :(. Finally ventured out today to run by dry cleaner and grocery store. Main roads seemed to be fine since they had been driven on but my long driveway was a sheet of ice. Got out just fine but got stuck trying to come back up, hubby had to rescue me!