Feeding in the Ice - Taken by Shelby
The worst ice storm in Arkansas history may be over but the clean-up process will last for many more days.
Many people are still without electricity. The electric companies are working very hard to restore power and repair lines & poles that need it. It is really amazing how electrical workers from other states have joined in the effort down here to help the local electric companies. My mom’s parents had been without electricity since noon on Tuesday. Theirs came back on yesterday evening. My dad’s mom still has no electricity at her house. Hers went out about 6 am Tuesday morning. She’s been staying at my parents’ house since then.
There are very few trees in the area that don’t have some sort of damage to them. Now that the ice has melted off of most them, it’s so sad to drive around and see the damage. Many people have lost whole trees, either because the ice uprooted them or because there was so much limb damage. I don’t know how my parents’ trees are going to fare. Dad started cleaning up Friday afternoon and is still working on it. The poor trees are going to look pretty sad, in some cases, because half of their limbs or large chunks of limbs are missing from them. My parents do have a couple of trees that branches didn’t break out of but that were completely bent from the weight of the ice. I’m happy to see those bounce back up (though still leaning a little bit). On the up side, my parents will have some firewood for next winter.
As I mentioned the other day, I have been staying with my parents this week. I finally went home last night and slept in my own bed. I don’t think my apartment ever lost electricity (not sure about the other utilities, though). I’m a little upset at my apartment complex, though. I got home last night and almost couldn’t walk to my door. The ice hasn’t melted as much in the complex, for some odd reason, as other areas. Because of that, there is still quite a bit on the street, sidewalks, and grass. I started walking on it thinking it would be slush like everywhere else. Instead, it was a solid sheet of ice. I’m a little upset with my apartment complex because I can’t seem to figure out why they haven’t spread some salt or used shovels to make it safer for us all. We live in apartments so it isn’t like we have shovels and such to help or I might actually be happy to shovel myself a path if necessary. I’ll have to go to the office to pay my rent today or tomorrow so I might mention it then if nothing is done between now and then. I just thought I’d rant here in the meantime.
It is so nice out today. It’s supposed to be sunny and almost 60 degrees again. I’m hoping that will finish melting all of the ice and allow clean-up/repair crews to get significant progress made. I can’t imagine what the current situation might be if the temperatures never warmed up after the ice. I’m pretty sure we’d still have quite a few more power outages and the clean-up process probably wouldn’t have gotten started very much, if at all.
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