The great ice storm of '09 Day 3

From Owensboro Ice Storm

If you aren't from Kentucky, then you probably haven't heard much about our fair cities ordeals theses past few days.  Between Monday and Tuesday of this week, we received (depending on where you lived in the region) an inch or two of ice and several inches of snow.  Tuesday night was an interesting night (when we received about 1/2 to an inch of ice), imagine hearing 4-6 inch thick tree limbs snapping and falling all night long, one after another, just hoping the next one doesn't come through the roof.  In case you've never experienced an ice storm, ice and trees don't mix.  In addition, falling tree limbs have an affinity for power lines.  When all is said and done, you have close to 700,000 people in Kentucky without power.  19,000 out of 26,000 Owensboro Municipal Utility customers were part of that 700,000.  Resident's of Muhlenberg county are being told to pack it up and leave, power won't be back for at least a month (of course, I would encourage anyone to leave Muhlenberg county regardless of its powered status).  Its going to be awhile before things are back to normal for everyone.

From Owensboro Ice Storm

Internet service has finally began to stabilize and the whirr of generators can be heard throughout the land.  Power is still out where I live, but I am keeping my house above freezing with a propane heater.  Personally, I'm hoping to have power back by the end of next week, although I am not holding my breath.  The hopes of getting a generator at this time are slim (Home Depot has had several shipments, yesterday, there were over 300 people in line waiting for the next shipment), the gas stations that have power have cars line up 3-4 deep waiting for gas,  the lines for propane are even longer.  I think things may get worse before they get better.  Several counties are reporting water shortages due to loss of power at their pumps. 

Now for come complaining - and this section applies to the day(s) after hurricane Ike also - I was always taught that when a traffic light is not powered (as is the case for the majority of traffic lights right now) the intersection should be treated as a four way stop.  I hope one of you idiots that blow through these intersections gets t-boned and your precious 1995 4-wheel drive, straight pipe exhaust, primer red, jacked up with knobby tires and rims that cost more than the truck you drive, gets totalled.  That goes the same for you too soccer mom in the Excursion who is in a hurry because their little Johnny needs orange juice.  As a matter of fact, anyone who drives something larger than a car that has any type of sticker in the back window (I really dont' care what your daughter's softball uniform number is, if you are a cowboy, or apparently think one of those tribal tatoo looking things looks really cool on your back glass) should be automaticaly ticketed if they are seen a half mile from their house.  Next time we have a bad storm, I ask you to perform an experiment, of all the vehicles that have run off the road, how many of these are 1:Larger than a car and 2:have some inane sticker in their back window.

Alright, enough complaining for now.  I do have to compliment the county road crews for getting the roads in good shape (in some cases better than city streets).