Power lines bent by ice soon gave way

Editor's Note - This story didn't get published until February 8, 2009 after electricity was restored.

(February 1, 2009) Sparkly, twinkly covers of ice on trees, bushes, cars, houses - the outdoors shone on Tuesday morning, January 27th. We stayed inside for much of the day thinking how pretty it was. The power went off at 10:10 p.m. Monday night.

No worries. We had cat food and cocoa and plenty of coffee.

Little did we know that pretty would become ugly and scary very soon as the temperature dropped and the power didn't come on back on for eight days.

Trees bent double. All the limbs on these trees broke off. The sound of cracking limbs echoed all day long like gunshots all around our house.

The kittens reacted to the storm true to their own little selves. Mosby wanted to be let out to search and destroy whoever was making the loud noises. Rommel curled up in a passable imitation of a woolly worm and took a long nap on the couch.

When that weight is on tree limbs and they fall on power lines - they drag the lines down. The weight of ice concentrated on the lines snapped them or broke the poles completely.

At the end of Day One, we covered up with lots of blankets - the house wasn't that cold yet - and figured tomorrow would be a better day.

Little did we know.