The Big Ice Storm

The Big Ice Storm of 2021

I’m sure you’ve noticed that we haven’t posted any updates for a while and that is because of the big ice storm of 2021 and the resulting state of emergency for our great state of West Virginia. We were moving right along on our Kitchen Mayhem and our Powder Room Makeover when February 15th rolled around and smacked us all right in the face.

The Big Ice Storm Experience

This ice storm was unlike anything I have ever experienced in the last 20 years. There are no words to accurately describe the damage for my area and my state. For us personally, that one night of ice that coated our trees and cars was the beginning of 8 days without electricity. Never had I seen the kind of damage that heavy ice on tree limbs could cause.

Our particular yard is very dense with massive (think 50+ year old) trees. It was part of the reason I picked this house 20 years ago. The back yard felt like our own private park for personal consumption. Unfortunately what we were left with after the ice storm was total devastation on our property.

Our Longest Night Ever

Not long after the ice coated the trees we lost power and what followed was one of the longest nights of our life. Without power we only had a small set of gas logs in our living room. Our family hung blankets in the two doorways to trap the heat and hunkered down for the night with flashlights. When the first crack happened it was followed by the loudest boom I have ever heard as a tree limb hit our metal roof and slid down into our backyard. Then another crack and another boom. It sounded as if the house was going cave in or the tree limbs were going to burst through the roof and pierce our ceiling. (Luckily for us that did not happen, but some friends of ours were not as fortunate.)

Before we knew it, it was just a steady stream of bombs landing on our house and sliding off of the metal roof. On more that one occasion I watched my Hubby and kids literally take off running scared to the front entry area just to get inside of a doorframe. Every crack instilled the fear that this time it was going to be a whole tree crashing onto us. After hours of this assault and terror it finally started to slow down. At around 2:30 AM we were able to drift off for a few minutes when another crash woke us all from a dead sleep and sent the whole family running yet again.

The Morning After

When daylight came we were finally able to look out and see what we had been hearing all night. The limbs were everywhere and they were giant. Some landed on our privacy fence and demolished it, some landed on our deck crushing it. When the snow cleared days later it was nearly impossible to even walk through our back yard due to all of the limbs and debris everywhere.

State Of Emergency

As I said before, this was the beginning of 8 days without power for us and freezing temperatures outside. We were able to snag a small propane heater and some of the little cylinders of propane. Unfortunately, those only lasted a few hours each. There was also no propane to purchase anywhere around us. I searched for hotels in our tri-state area using a 100 mile radius and there were none to be found.

Every morning I would get up and be too cold to take my pajamas off and get ready for work. I would gather everything I needed and go to work early (in my PJ’s!) and get ready there. My Hubby drove around every day looking for anywhere that had propane to fill the one large cylinder that we pulled off of our gas grill. He would hear of a location and go there before they opened only to find a line that stretched down the block. One man told him that his buddy had already been there for three hours and was just about to make it to the door. Might I remind you that at this point we were still dealing with freezing temperatures outside. It was like being in a third world country. Just completely unbelievable.

By the time we were restored power our house temperature was down in the 40’s. I have a friend who was without power for almost 3 weeks. Power trucks were pouring into our region from all across the United States. Our Governor declared West Virginia a state of emergency, yet no one outside of our area seemed to even know what was going on. They didn’t even seem to notice that ANYTHING was going on around here at all.

Weeks later, driving around after all of the ice melted and the power was restored, I could not believe my eyes. It looked like a war zone. Trees down everywhere blocking main roads and side roads trapping families in their homes for weeks at a time. We were lucky to get away with the small amount of damage that we had. We were lucky to have only gone without power for 8 days. I had friends who had it way worse than we did.

The Back Yard

As you can see, our yard was a disaster zone. The limbs destroyed our fence in 4 separate areas. It dented one of our new gutters. Our carport- the carcouphagus as we call it- was damaged as well.

There were four loads of tree debris hauled out of our yard and taken to the dump. There was no saving the fence. A new one is now up. The deck is also replaced. We also lost a full fridge and 2 freezers full of food. It was definitely heartbreaking to toss it all out.

The Positives of The Big Ice Storm

What positive came from this? A new fence for one. She sure is a beauty. Our existing fence was over 20 years old and I know I could not have ever afforded to replace it without something like this happening. So there is that. We also had the opportunity to replace our existing deck. It is gorgeous as well! We also definitely learned some hard lessons about being prepared for the unexpected. There were no heaters available anywhere, nor were there any generators. We have now purchased a second propane heater and keep filled tanks of propane handy at all times.

Something else that happened was that for nearly everyone time seemed to stand still. I work in healthcare so I had to keep going to work but for other places everything just stopped. We huddled together in our homes to stay warm but we also experienced something together that no one will ever forget. We cracked up at our resourceful kids who learned that you can in fact heat up ramen noodles in a pot directly on top of a propane heater. Our family snuggled up under piles of blankets to sleep. We adapted together. Improvised. We reached out to other people and shared our resources in a way that was definitely new.

One Big Adventure?

As horrible and miserably cold as it was, I can honestly say I will never forget the experience and as I look back it almost feels like an unplanned extreme survivalist adventure. Hey, don’t some people actually pay to live like that for fun? We never will, that’s for sure. Count us out. Been there, done that. Once is enough for us.

Soooooo this is why we went radio silent for a while. All progress on the Kitchen Refresh and Powder Room Makeover came to a screeching halt. Life took over for a while and put the house on the back burner. We later made a little bit of progress after the ice storm (which I will show you soon!) and then life threw another curve ball at us. Dun dun dun- covid hit our household. Alas, that is another story for another day as well.

I hope you guys haven’t given up on us and our ongoing kitchen (and life) drama. I promise we will get there eventually. You know- little by little. And as always, thanks for stopping by!

mrslittlebylittle