On January 12th of 2007 we got hit with the worst Ice Storm in Missouri’s recorded history. Life was hell in sub zero temperatures. We lost cable TV that night around 9PM and then lost power around midnight. Not thinking it was going to be as bad as it was we just bundled up and figured we would get through it. All would be better in the morning. It always is… With nothing else to do we went out on our front porch to watch the storm. We live across the street from a very beautiful cemetery. Lots of very big and very old trees. Springfield is a very green city for its size.
As we stood there on the porch we could hear the crack of branches and see the trees split as the weight of the ice got too much for the branches and trees. We saw whole trees uprooted completely. It was devastating to watch. You wanted to look away or go inside but stood transfixed by the sounds and sights before you. We finally got too cold to stay out any longer and the dogs were going berserk from all the unreal sounds. So we went back in.. It will all be OK in hate morning…
Or so we thought…
We lost power for over 14 days. Now I know what they mean when they say “When Hell Freezes Over”. We were in hell and didn’t know just how we got there, I don’t even remember the basket ride.
We could not go to any shelters because we had pets. No shelters will take your pets during a disaster like this. So we decided to stick it out at home with them. We have 3 large dogs ( 2 Rotties and a White Alsatian / Russian Kavas mix ) as well as 3 cats. The dogs are all cold weather guys so they loved it. But the cats were on the verge of dying by the 5th days or so. We were lucky that a friend contacted us and told us to bring the cats over and keep them warm there. They didn’t have any power either, but at least they had heat. It seems they had an old gas furnace in their home. So for the next week the cats and us camped out on their living room floor.
The mind begins to play tricks on you when you have no power / light at night. Living with candles only and cooking with sterno cans can play hell on one’s mind. And when your daily food intake consists of Raman noodles or a luke warm can of soup, you can get a bit testy. But we managed. And we lived. So did our animals…
Here are some of the pics from our area.
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