Winter Storm Warning! How do you deal with ice storms?

oh good I am glad you have a way of staying warm even if you have to go to your son's house, that is a relief, if you ever see your breath in your own home get out that is dangerous.

I couldn't imagine! I know that's a real threat, though. People will do anything to stay warm and that can be hazardous unless they keep a close eye on any open flame! Luckily, here in our community, everyone is so helpful to everyone else, well, with a few exceptions. For the most part, though, people are willing to help out a neighbor in need. I have my son's home to go to if need be and he has a fireplace and plenty of firewood! We do have a pellet stove; I ought to check to see if we could burn wood logs in it. Pellets burn very hot but they also burn very quickly. I sure hope I don't hear of anyone's house burning down... or worse!

The garage!!!!! Oh, thank you!!! I completely forgot about the garage! Yes, yes, yes! We could cook there as well! Hmmm, our garage is right under our diningroom and kitchen, too. Those are also our rooms that get the most sunlight during the day. We have plenty of batteries, candles and non-perishable food so we'll do fine if we lose power. I guess it takes experience before we really learn how to handle these types of situations the best way possible, huh? Even if that experience is the experience of someone else! I want a wood burning fireplace between our dining room and living room. It would be the perfect spot for it... one of those that are open on 2 sides. Maybe, after this storm passes, my husband will finally have one put in like he promised me LAST winter!

Thanks, Pam. I hope it's not as bad as they're saying, either! It's sleeting right now. Luckily, we have plenty of non-perishable food but we also have electric heat! We have electric everything except hot water. We have a tankless water heater that runs on propane. We'd have hot water until the water bladder empties out... we're on well-water and the pump runs on electricity. My office is run from solar power so I can use that to run our small fridge or microwave if need be. It's things like this that make me go out and buy more solar panels! My dream is to one day not be reliant on the power company at all. But, that ain't happened yet! I remember we lost power from a snow storm when I was about 10 years old. My entire family slept in one bedroom and pretty much stayed in one room during the day to keep as warm as possible. We had electric heat then, too. I'm definitely going to be looking into generators A.S.A.P.!

WOW! Five days in a motel? That must have been sooooo uncomfortable! Well, I suppose it was better than staying in that cold house! Our heat is electric, too. Everything we have is electric except our water heater which is run by propane, BUT the well pump is run by electricity! We'll have "hot" without "water"! The longest I've gone without power was 4 days and that was after a hurricane, so it wasn't cold outside. It was actually very nice outside! I'm so thankful for that. Of course, keeping food cold wasn't easy but we managed. Cooking was fun because we used the grill but then, like I said, it wasn't cold outside. I wouldn't want to fire up the grill in sub-freezing temperatures! I'm a weather-weenie! I'm glad you came through that storm okay! I have visions of trees coming down and going through roofs. Living in the mountains is nice but there are so many tall trees!!!

Yeah, it's no fun, even just going through the worrying part! We may not lose electricity because a lot of our power lines are underground... at least the one coming to our house is. But, we have lost power before... only a few hours though. I'm not going out anywhere in this mess! LOL Don't worry! I'll drive in snow (if traffic isn't bad) but I refuse to drive on ice! I did that once because I HAD to but, never again! Nope! White-knuckled is NOT the proper way to drive! I'm glad, too, that my son, who works nights, is off for the next 2 days. Tuesday and Wednesday nights are his nights off. So, it's hunker-down time for my family. I haven't seen one single car go by today. I did see a flashing yellow light off in the distance; that was probably a snow plow or something like that, but nobody seems to be moving anywhere today! I'm glad because it means that more people would rather be safe than sorry.

This weather is crazy, isn't it? Yesterday it almost hit 70 degrees here! I was so happy because our lake had started to freeze over but all the ice melted. Now, today... Geesh! I think nature always provides a positive to every negative... ice is treacherous but also beautiful! I keep thinking of the movie, Doctor Zhivago, when I think of ice storms. I don't know if you saw that movie but it has some of the most spectacular scenes with everything covered in ice! Beautiful!!! I got caught in a snow storm once and it took me 3 hours to get home from work instead of my usual 20 minutes. Traffic was horrendous! People were sliding all over the place (including me), stalled out or involved in fender benders everywhere! I almost didn't make it up a hill at one point but some kids (teens) were out there, helping people get "unstuck". My car was fishtailing (I had a Mustang at the time and they're notorious for having no weight in the rear) so they kept it from hitting the parked cars until I could get some traction to get up the hill. I almost ran out of gas, too! It was a miracle that I made it home. My mother walked to work once after we got about 3 feet of snow. She was a social worker and was part of the 'skeleton crew' which meant that she HAD to show up to help people with emergencies. There was no way anyone could get their car out from where we lived so, she walked. What a trip! I don't envy anyone who has to walk in that... snow or ice! I'm so glad to hear your husband made it home okay!

Well, it sounds like you have a really good plan, just in case! I'd love a fireplace myself for that very reason! Well, one of the reasons, anyway. My husband bought a pellet stove last year and it works great, but it has an electric starter! I wouldn't know how to get it going if our electricity went out, or even if it's possible! We have a fire pit but you can't use them indoors. LOL My office is run by solar-power so I could always unplug my computer and plug in our small refrigerator or microwave, if needed. I just hate everything being covered in ice! Right now it has just started sleeting in the last few minutes so everything is turning white with ice outside. I was HOPING we'd get snow first because it's much easier to get around when the ice is on top of snow instead of the other way around. Hmmm, everything we have here is electric except for our hot water. We have a tankless water heater run on propane so we'd have hot water, at least until the water bladder is empty since the well pump runs on electricity, too. Geesh! I guess we could put the fire pit in our pavilion by the lake to cook by. We also have our grills, both propane and charcoal, so cooking will be possible. It looks like I'd better start working on a better plan for things like this! LOL

Thanks so much, caver! Right now, it's sleeting like crazy! It just started coming down really fast and hard about a minute ago. We're probably getting that same storm system that you had. I doubt many people will be going to work today or they'll be coming home earlier than normal! I hope we "weather" this storm out okay, too! I just realized that everything we have here is electric! Well, except for the water heater. My office is run from solar energy so I can always unplug my computer and plug in our small fridge or microwave, if necessary. I'm glad you were able to keep your electricity! I think that's the worst thing that happens during these winter storms, unless you have gas heat or some other means of heating your house. Last winter we looked into getting a whole-house generator. I have no idea what happened to that idea! Oh, well... hopefully, it's not too late and we won't lose electricity, at least not until AFTER we get that generator! LOL Stay safe!