OK, with all the people wanting bailouts (realestate, auto industry, medical industry, etc), I think I should get one, too. On Tuesday afternoon, I became one of the thousands of people in Kentucky to lose power. We had ice, rain, snow, ice, snow (in that order) over the past few days. NO FUN. Sadly, our heat is electric, so we have no heat. When I left the house this afternoon, it was 48 degrees (not THAT bad, but considering that it was 69 when the power went out on Tuesday...). During the ice storm, our electricity pole broke in two and our wires broke. So not only do we live in the middle of nowhere ANYWAY, but now they have to fix that problem, too. Dad heard rumors at work that it could be mid-February before we get power again. That's THREE WEEKS.
During the Tuesday night ice storm, we lost our cherry tree. We have many other fruit trees that have endured damage and hopefully haven't been destroyed. I haven't been able to do school the past few days, since all of my work is on the computer and neither of our laptops work without being plugged in. The schools have been out, as well, so I don't feel too bad. It's not like I'm really behind in school and only have a few months left to finish the enormous amount of school to do... I haven't been able to do my frequent scholarship searches. My newsletter needs to go out on Sunday and there's no way I'm going to be able to do it. All in all, life's not going perfectly for me, so I think I should just join everyone else with demanding the government fix my problems...I want a bailout!*
Oh, and for any of those wondering...I'm at a friend's house for the night and that's how I'm able to check ProU.
*Just teasing...I understand the reality that life's not fair and that the government cannot and hopefully WILL NOT fix everyone's problems with redistribution of wealth.
Well I am so sorry to hear that you lost power. I lived in Omaha Ne for many years I know the problems that come with snow. Also we had a plan for black out and snow made power outs. The plan went as followed:
1. Have a generator ready to go at all times run once week for 30 minutes.
2. Have a heater that runs off propane that will not smoke you out of the house.
3. Seal off the house and stay in one room to conserve on heating
4. Flash lights always handy
5. Have food that does not need to be cook on hand and the food that can be stored for long time.
6. Water stored
7. Portable oven that can run off your generator
8. Keep an eye on the weather reports for bad weather and stock up on things that you may need
Making plans for anything is always good. I hope you take the time to make up a plan for these types of situations. Take care and stay warm.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749
Thanks so much for the tips! Some guy announced on the news today that Western KY could go the next 3-4 weeks without seeing power...I'm like...ready to die. :P My dad managed to buy a generator this morning and so we'll be able to use our oven now. Luckily, we have a gas-run stove and oven, so we've been able to light our stove, just not our oven. In addition, I should be able to charge my cell phone and Dad's laptop, so I'll still be able to do school during the daylight hours. But I'm still ready to die...this totally messes up my already pressured school schedule...if I had a couple hundred bucks I'd fly out to my friend in MD's house and go visit Christendom. ROFL
Thanks again for the tips! :D We need to go buy some bottled waters because my aunt heard that KY might run out of water. *shrug* IDK...
RESPECT LIFE
SMILE EVERY DAY
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa
I totally sympathize. The weather sucks right now. My power goes out during the bad storms, but usually it doesn't last too long. I guess I lucked out.
I wish you the best of luck with everything!
*~*~*~*~
I need some more input from y'all here in this forum topic: A ProgressiveU Radio Show/Podcast
I think this is an idea that can improve the ProgressiveU community.
I can sort of sympathize. I live in Texas and the coldest we get is like 28 degrees one week every year. While we have never experienced anything quite like you have, the occasional bad (in Texas standards at least) storm could cause damage just because we are not used to it and not prepared for it. In fact, even the threat of a “bad” ice could result in school being delayed and activities canceled (whether or not the ice came.)
I wish you luck!
Actually, 28 degrees would be unusual...the coldest we've had was 35-40 for a few days. I live in Austin, though, so if you live further north you may be experiencing worse.
To respectlife: i'm sorry about losing power! and the scholarship searching process isn't a very fun one...I've applied to more than I can count since high school, and I only "received" one--and it ended up being just a certificate with congratulations on it. I never got the money from that organization. So good luck and congrats on the proU scholarship!
When I lived in South Carolina, we had an ice storm that resulted in 3-4 days without snow. I thought it was a complete joke, because the year before, I had lived in Denver and we had a HUGE snowstorm. That resulted in like 3 feet of HEAVY snow (like, they recommended not shoveling it, because it could break people's backs). In neither case, my power went out, but that only happened in South Carolina because we lived in a new development, and all our power lines were buried.
When we finally went to school the following week, some of my friends said they had been without power all week, and still didn't have any power. I was mad at several of them for not contacting me, because they could have at least come by and had a hot meal.
Anyway, I hope you can get power back soon.
~C
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Like u I also live in Kentucky. Our power was out for 4 days. I was starting to get really sick because my room was like 30 degrees and despite the 3 blankets and 20 layers of clothing I was freezing to death. I hope you have power back by now hopefully. Ours went out again this morning and I was worried to death and freaking out. I stared at a candle for about 4 days that was interesting and I smelled awful because like u I had heat through electric...and the water heater was to.
Come to the darkside....we have cookies ;)
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/50086-%E2%80%9Ctaxi-darkside%E2%80%9D-u...
I didn't know you live in KY! Neatness :P I live in Western...you?
Yeah, I went like a week without a shower...I felt sooooooo gross!!!! :P But no, sadly, the power's still not back...we've been all over the place trying to stay out of the house because my siblings have been sick...naturally, although they never share anything with me, they were sure to share their germs, so now I have a cough and have practically lost my voice. *sigh* They're still saying a month before we get power. *sigh*
RESPECT LIFE
SMILE EVERY DAY
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa
I live close to Lexington so I guess it would be central ky then? lol. Hopefully u didn't get to sick from that. I started to get really sick from it. Hopefully you have power by now though..I really hope you do at least. We have been told most the power is restored in KY but who knows if what they say is true.
Come to the darkside....we have cookies ;)
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/50086-%E2%80%9Ctaxi-darkside%E2%80%9D-u...
No way! I go over to the Lexington area like...all the time because I have some friends over there! I WAS going to go on Monday for a friend's play (he's going to be Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice!!! :P), but not I'm not going to be able to go. :( :( :(
Nope, still no power...our company still has 800 people w/o power in my county, so hopefully soon, but we'll see!
RESPECT LIFE
SMILE EVERY DAY
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa
President Obama finally declared you all a disaster area. Also I heard that the FEMA Director finally showed up. Johnny on the spot about 9 days after the storm. How about that prompt response? I recall that the Bush Administration was labled as incompetent and it only took him 3 days to show up in New Orleans.
Out here in the rest of the country the media has given your plight pretty scant coverage. Unlike Katrina, it has hardly been 24 hour coverage. And they did not show us a single one of the dead bodies that were killed by the storm. I thought the coverage between the two events was a triffle unbalanced and perhaps even biased.
You all have really been short-changed. The Katrina victims all got debit cards with like $2000 on them and they got re-located to fancy hotels with free wireless where you could do your homework. You all do indeed deserve a bail-out.
Interesting, your comment was good, but I am not surprised that Obama is not getting the same reporting level as Bush did. In the eyes of the media bush could do nothing right and Obama can do nothing wrong.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749
Our sentiments exactly! We're joking that it's because we're a bunch of shotgun toting redneck Republicans instead of a bunch of minorities and illegals, so that's why we're getting lousy "aid" and little media coverage.
Very few of my friends even knew about the ice storm when I asked for prayers online on Friday (after the storm had occurred on Tuesday...). My sister (who lives in TX) didn't know anything had happened until we called her for her birthday on Monday (nearly a week later!).
We bought a generator and various friends have loaned us heaters, so we're warm now (as of this morning...until then, the house had been in the 40s). Still no clue when we'll get power. Our neighbors have power now, so it's just us on our street with no power. Our utility company still had 2500 poles to fix as of yesterday morning.
And to top off the happy, happy, joy, joy, I'm sick for the first time in no-telling-how-long. My sister picked up a cough/sore throat/cold thing on the March for Life, gave it to my siblings, who in turn, gave it to me. Yayness. *sigh*
So overall, life's interesting. :P
Thanks for the support. :)
RESPECT LIFE
SMILE EVERY DAY
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa
I was in Costa Rica when your storm hit and I did actually hear about it while I was down there. But it got about 20 seconds on CNN and I had no idea how bad it was.
And I remember seeing more that one dead body during the Katrina coverage. Not to be overly caulous, but I think a Kentucky human popscicle should have been equally newsworthy even if you all are Republicans.
Neat :) I have a friend whose grandmother is from Costa Rica :P Yeah, my sister said that she heard something about it on a Christian radio channel, but it wasn't made a big deal of...
IDK how many people have died through this thing, but I do know that it was in the teens at night the few days after the power went out. A friend of mine said that it got to 30 degrees in her room. It didn't get that cold at my house, but things have definitely been crazy.
LOL Thanks, I agree. :P I think my mom's especially bummed about her cherry tree that got ruined.
BTW, here are some pics of my yard, if you're interested: :P
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58703&l=d584c&id=711952363
RESPECT LIFE
SMILE EVERY DAY
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa
Now I understand why CNN is not there taking pictures. People from the colder regions of the the country would be laughing at you all.
Seriously, all that damage was caused by 2 inches of snow and half an inch of ice???
Our first storm of the winter up here was about twice that bad and we have had much worse storms since.
The difference between up north and down south is that down south is not used to snow. I have had the advantage of living both in Omaha, Ne for many years of my youth and I have lived outside of Nashville, Tn for a year or two. I am currently living in NM if this southern area got a inch of snow they would not know what to do. Snow is an uncommon thing. Where as up north you would need at least a foot and a half of snow to fall in one night to get school closed down for the day. Up north they are accustom to snow and they prepare for it. The level of snow does not diminish what happened. They lost power for a long time they were freezing and people died. Two inches or not they deserve the support as anyone else in a natural disaster area. This also includes media attention and help.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749
LOL Well, I've lived the past few years in Connecticut, so on Monday when everyone was freaking out about the storm, I was laughing and wondering what the big deal is. :P
But we got more like an inch to 2 inches of ice and I'm not sure how much snow. The problem with ice is that, unlike snow, you can't just brush it away. It freezes onto the trees and poles and weighs them down, causing them to collapse, thus, causing a lot of damage. All Tuesday night, trees were falling. I woke up a few times during the night and was always scared that stuff would fall on me because it was constantly falling. :P Then on Wed afternoon when my parents were out removing branches and whatnot, branches were falling even then.
So yeah, it was just a little ice, but it did cause all the damage. ;)
BTW, I just uploaded a few more pictures to that album that my dad just took of how things are looking today. All the ice is gone and most of the snow, so now it's just ugly damage. :P
RESPECT LIFE
SMILE EVERY DAY
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa