Ice-pocalypse 2014

Well.  We survived Ice-pocalypse 2014.  The funny thing about it was that, while it sleeted and freezing rained about 3 inches Thursday night and into Friday morning, almost every single bit was melted by Saturday afternoon when it was 65 degrees.  And yet... we lost power for four days.  It flickered about five times at 4 am on Friday morning and each time it came back on the doorbell rang and Bailey barked.  That was fun to deal with in the middle of the night.  Ed disconnected the doorbell, but the power soon gave up the ghost and was out for good for the next four days.

 Two of the pines that we lost

Ed's work was canceled on Friday, but I braved the conditions and made it in.  In all honesty, had I known how bad the roads were in Greensboro, I probably wouldn't have left the house.  I passed five fallen trees before I'd gone a mile, one of which I had to drive slightly off the road in the slushy, sleety mess, terrified I was going to go in the ditch like the numerous other people I passed.  I thought once I got to the interstate it would be better and that since I survived Alamance Church Road, the worst was behind me.  I was partially right.  The worst was behind me, but the interstate was not much better.  It was still sleeting and the lanes were covered in an inch or so of slippery slush.  Conditions were fairly treacherous, only allowing me to drive 40mph at the fastest, and it took me an hour and fifteen minutes to get the 35 miles to Winston.

Trees were completely uprooted

We lost several trees and even more branches in our yard.  Luckily, nothing landed on the house or cars.  We were very fortunate in that way.  In other yards, I saw branches and trees on houses and cars, and most frighteningly on power lines and telephone poles.  We drove under a tree on Nelson Farm Road that was leaning on a power line.  Trees simply exploded with all the ice.  I saw more than one tree that had split in the center, with all the branches touching the ground like an inverted umbrella.  It looked like a giant had come through, smashing all things taller than a house.

Without power we were limited to the things we could do and the showers we could take.  Thankfully our friends, Caroline and Tyson, opened up their home to people who were without power and let us shower there.  We stayed overnight in Charlotte (where the storm had only been rain) with Tim and Dorian and were able to watch Carolina get crushed by Duke (most disappointing).  It was a long four days, but I'm thankful that it didn't go any longer!