What forecasters called a “potentially catastrophic” storm – the worst in possibly 40 years hit the Midwest and nearly 1/3 of the country’s population this week.
While the majority of those affected were receiving 1-2’ of snow or severe weather, central Indiana was receiving ice – and lots of it. The ice storm of 2011 started on Monday evening, January 31. Bloomington was lucky in that we just received a coating of ice – nothing that stopped traffic. But, Tuesday, February 1 was a complete other story. Bloomington was hammered with ice, winds, and treacherous road conditions.
We were lucky to make it to 9:00 p.m. Tuesday with power – enough time to make dinner and get Amelia down for the night. And, then it went out. The next few minutes were ominous to say the least. Lee and I began looking over the neighborhood, and it seemed everyone near us was out. With the house quiet, all we heard was ice, wind, and trees falling due to the weight of the ice. All of a sudden we saw these large flashes of light …. electrical transformers all around us were blowing. It really felt as though the apocalypse was upon us.
We laid down for bed and woke up the next morning to house at 56 degrees. We put on some clothes, got our faucets dripping, and Lee went to get us some breakfast and check on the rest of the county via McDonald’s Wi-Fi. After Amelia’s morning nap, we headed to Lee’s grandma’s. I had thought ahead and reserved a hotel room for Wednesday and Thursday night in case of a power outage. I was hoping we didn’t have to use it, but regardless, check-in wasn’t until 3 p.m.
Around 4 p.m. we ventured to the hotel, and Lee headed back to the house to check on the cats, drain the water system, and get the house ready for the bitter cold night ahead. The house was at 49 degrees. As he was there, the power miraculously came back on – 20 hours after having gone out. Of course, now we rented a hotel room that we didn’t need, but frankly, I didn’t care. After eating dinner and giving the house some time to warm up, we headed home.
All in all, we were pretty lucky. Our neighbors, who are with a different power company, still didn’t have power this morning. We lost our willow tree. Our pine tree lost some larger branches. We have lots of smaller limbs down. But, we have our health, our home, and our electricity. Thank you UDWI REMC linemen for getting us up and running. You prevented a stressed-out Mommy from losing her mind.
