First, sorry about the lack of posts. Internet access hasn't been easy to come by..
We finally left the Drury Sunday morning. After church, the boys went to stay with my parents (they had power). Donna went with me to Nashville (I had a training class the first three days of the week).
I was able to stay in a very nice hotel (Doubletree Suites Airport) at a reasonable price. However, this marked more than seven days I'd been in a hotel which meant I was a bit tired of being in one. Jonathan and Josh made daily visits to our house to monitor things and feed the cats. We got a call from Josh Wednesday morning saying we finally had power!
Donna and I were talking while driving back from Nashville Wednesday afternoon. We'd stayed in a couple of of nice hotels and been treated very well at both. However, there is nothing like being able to be in your home. Of course, we thought of this song.
This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
We have many enjoyable experiences here on earth. But as Christians, we look forward to being able to be in our heavenly home. John 14.2 is a comfort when things seem bleak.
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you
There are still a lot of people here without power. The Cherokee subdivision just got power and my in-laws finally got power last night. There is a lot of cleanup to be done. I've heard numerous visiting lineman say they've never seen anything to compare with what has happened here. Continue to keep us in your prayers.
Showing posts with label Paducah Ice Storm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paducah Ice Storm. Show all posts
Monday, February 9, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The Iceman Cometh part 3
Things are starting to get a little better. About 75% of Paducah has power. Jackson Purchase is close to getting the main power lines set up to try and get a lot of homes online in the next day or so. The long gas lines are gone now.
We went to our house again to get church clothes and other items. My mom and dad's house has power now, so we were able to do laundry there. It got into the 40s yesterday so most of the roads are melted. There are still trees on many back roads plus ice falling off of the trees. We went to visit Donna parents. Most of her side of the family is holed up in her sister's house where they have a generator. They are making it OK but they've been in there for four days now.
Even though the cities are improving things in the rural areas are still really bad. Keep everybody in your prayers.
We went to our house again to get church clothes and other items. My mom and dad's house has power now, so we were able to do laundry there. It got into the 40s yesterday so most of the roads are melted. There are still trees on many back roads plus ice falling off of the trees. We went to visit Donna parents. Most of her side of the family is holed up in her sister's house where they have a generator. They are making it OK but they've been in there for four days now.
Even though the cities are improving things in the rural areas are still really bad. Keep everybody in your prayers.
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Iceman Cometh - part 2
We are still holed up at the Drury. We have power and cable came back yesterday. The boys brought their Wi and there is soda on tap in the lobby so they are happy.
Restaurants are open during the day. The boys traipsed to Taco Bell and Donna and I ate at O'Charleys. There is still a sundown curfew. Most places were only taking cash since they couldn't get connections for their card readers. There are still long lines at the gas stations with police controlling things (thankfully). Wal-mart by the mall finally opened but the lines were the worst I've ever seen. Power is restored to about half of Paducah Power users. Jackson Purchase only had about 2000 out of 25,000 restored as of last night. Nobody with West KY electric has been restored.
Cell service for AT&T finally came up last night at least for now. Something about them not having generators at their towers and having to get them. Seems like that would have been standard equipment for situations like these?
Most everyone I know still has no power. I've heard it could be weeks before things get repaired even with all the extra help.
Keep everybody here in your prayers. I'll try to keep things updated as best I can.
Restaurants are open during the day. The boys traipsed to Taco Bell and Donna and I ate at O'Charleys. There is still a sundown curfew. Most places were only taking cash since they couldn't get connections for their card readers. There are still long lines at the gas stations with police controlling things (thankfully). Wal-mart by the mall finally opened but the lines were the worst I've ever seen. Power is restored to about half of Paducah Power users. Jackson Purchase only had about 2000 out of 25,000 restored as of last night. Nobody with West KY electric has been restored.
Cell service for AT&T finally came up last night at least for now. Something about them not having generators at their towers and having to get them. Seems like that would have been standard equipment for situations like these?
Most everyone I know still has no power. I've heard it could be weeks before things get repaired even with all the extra help.
Keep everybody here in your prayers. I'll try to keep things updated as best I can.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The Iceman cometh...
It's been a wild past few days in the Paducah area. It started with freezing rain Monday night and Tuesday. That was only the beginning.
I made it to work OK Tuesday. When we got home, our power went out about 4:30pm. Fortunately (in a rare bit of foresight on my part) I had reserved rooms at the Drury Suites in Paducah. We headed down there and checked in. It broke my heart to see people come in needing a room and not being able to get one. I almost gave ours up a couple of times. There was no cable (sparing me having to watch UK lose to Ole Miss) but we had electricity. I woke up in the night to see they'd lost power at our hotel. Despite that, everything stayed warm and they were even able to provide breakfast for us.
There was ice everywhere Wednesday morning and several inches of snow on top of that. Everything was closed. I finally got out to run by home to get provisions. It wasn't horribly slick (I fortunately still have my 1989 S-10 Blazer with 4WD) and I made it OK. The big problem was dodging downed tree limbs and power lines. I had to backtrack several times. I finally ended up on 286 and got to our road. I met Jesse Hunt on a front end loader. His dad (Darren known here as Little Doc) and he had cleaned off most of the road. I got within about a quarter mile of the house and ran into some limbs which I was able to manhandle out of the way. I got in and got food, clothing, board games and our two Nintendo DS's. I left food for our cats as well.
I finally went by work. I had gotten a voice mail on the home phone about issues. When I got there, it turned out all of our WAN links to all other USEC sites were out so I could do nothing about that. I made it back to the hotel OK.
We spent a pretty enjoyable afternoon playing Scrabble, Yahtzee and just talking. We ate the food I'd brought and the hotel even managed to get soft drinks and ice, salad, chips and salsa and pretzels to eat. Josh went out to walk around and see what was open. He was stopped by a policeman who told him there was a curfew and he needed to go back (the policeman was nice about it).
Whenever a gas station would open up, people would converge on it. I heard numerous reports on the radio about this type of thing (I again showed amazing foresight and had filled up Tuesday night). I would see huge lines (like in the late 70s Arab oil embargo days) at the stations. They'd run out of gas and then people would leave and look for another open station.
Power finally came back on the hotel about 6:00. There was a curfew so we didn't go out to try and eat. We had plenty to eat and we felt bad about going out when other people who needed something were going too. I was able to talk to my parents and find out they were ok. Donna discovered by going to the top floor of the hotel she could get a cell phone signal (it's been spotty at best) so we went up there to make a few phone calls then we went to bed.
The amount of downed power lines and tree limbs are almost unbelievable. I saw numerous poles snapped as well. There was an army of repairmen at our hotel this morning heading out to work, but I still have to believe it'll be days before this is all back to anywhere near normal. Please keep the people here in your prayers.
The Drury Suites has been great through all of this. They've bent over backwards for everybody here. The young man serving food has been here for four straight days and was just as nice and congenial as he could be. They've always been one of my favorite hotel chains and this only confirms that for me.
I made it to work OK Tuesday. When we got home, our power went out about 4:30pm. Fortunately (in a rare bit of foresight on my part) I had reserved rooms at the Drury Suites in Paducah. We headed down there and checked in. It broke my heart to see people come in needing a room and not being able to get one. I almost gave ours up a couple of times. There was no cable (sparing me having to watch UK lose to Ole Miss) but we had electricity. I woke up in the night to see they'd lost power at our hotel. Despite that, everything stayed warm and they were even able to provide breakfast for us.
There was ice everywhere Wednesday morning and several inches of snow on top of that. Everything was closed. I finally got out to run by home to get provisions. It wasn't horribly slick (I fortunately still have my 1989 S-10 Blazer with 4WD) and I made it OK. The big problem was dodging downed tree limbs and power lines. I had to backtrack several times. I finally ended up on 286 and got to our road. I met Jesse Hunt on a front end loader. His dad (Darren known here as Little Doc) and he had cleaned off most of the road. I got within about a quarter mile of the house and ran into some limbs which I was able to manhandle out of the way. I got in and got food, clothing, board games and our two Nintendo DS's. I left food for our cats as well.
I finally went by work. I had gotten a voice mail on the home phone about issues. When I got there, it turned out all of our WAN links to all other USEC sites were out so I could do nothing about that. I made it back to the hotel OK.
We spent a pretty enjoyable afternoon playing Scrabble, Yahtzee and just talking. We ate the food I'd brought and the hotel even managed to get soft drinks and ice, salad, chips and salsa and pretzels to eat. Josh went out to walk around and see what was open. He was stopped by a policeman who told him there was a curfew and he needed to go back (the policeman was nice about it).
Whenever a gas station would open up, people would converge on it. I heard numerous reports on the radio about this type of thing (I again showed amazing foresight and had filled up Tuesday night). I would see huge lines (like in the late 70s Arab oil embargo days) at the stations. They'd run out of gas and then people would leave and look for another open station.
Power finally came back on the hotel about 6:00. There was a curfew so we didn't go out to try and eat. We had plenty to eat and we felt bad about going out when other people who needed something were going too. I was able to talk to my parents and find out they were ok. Donna discovered by going to the top floor of the hotel she could get a cell phone signal (it's been spotty at best) so we went up there to make a few phone calls then we went to bed.
The amount of downed power lines and tree limbs are almost unbelievable. I saw numerous poles snapped as well. There was an army of repairmen at our hotel this morning heading out to work, but I still have to believe it'll be days before this is all back to anywhere near normal. Please keep the people here in your prayers.
The Drury Suites has been great through all of this. They've bent over backwards for everybody here. The young man serving food has been here for four straight days and was just as nice and congenial as he could be. They've always been one of my favorite hotel chains and this only confirms that for me.
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