It’s been a crazy couple of weeks here at home
- Bob Hanna: Someday
- March 10, 2021
- 1019
Wow, how crazy these past two weeks have been here in Kentucky. When we finished last time, I was describing the disastrous ice storm and its effects, not only on the people of our area, but also for the animals of the forest.
First of all, we need to realize that just as we rely on God to take care of us and lead us in his path, the animals were created and given instincts by him to survive. Second, answers became apparent over the next few days that the animals were out seeking food at our bird feeder, which sits directly in front of our front porch and became a care center. We love to watch the birds each morning, and even though I’m no Bruce Glick, I love to see all the different species and watch them interact. Over the course of the ice storm, they were eating over 10 pounds a day.
But they weren’t the only ones coming to the “care center.” It became apparent in the ice and snow that deer had found the feeder, and one night I looked out our bedroom window to see five deer bedded underneath it. The next morning their tracks showed they had even come right up to our porch to check out our flower beds. We added another corn center to our back yard for them.
Many people in our area were not prepared for this disaster, and crews were out, not only trying to restore electricity, but also many had trees fall across driveways that had to be cleared. Our neighbor (God bless him) was hauling some of his firewood to those who heat with a wood stove and were about out.
With the help of a friend, we finally got our propane tank heater to work, which helped a lot. We used our emergency car charger to keep our cell phones charged, had plenty of camping flashlights and lamps to get around, and in the evenings I even read hunting magazines and books.
By day three we cleaned out our refrigerator and made our back porch into a walk-in fridge. We heard from the local businesses that there wasn’t any salt, batteries, propane or gas cans for several counties around us. Many people heated with kerosene heaters.
With the help of our neighbors, we did finally manage to cut through the branches on our road enough to get ice for our freezers.
That next Sunday, Taryn and I headed to Grayson only to find our church was canceled. So we took a drive toward Olive Hill, Morehead and then back home. The devastation of our area was incredible. One thing that became apparent to me was that in this area there is a thin root base for the trees before you get to solid rock. Many trees on the hillsides just couldn’t handle the weight of the ice and uprooted, falling even on other trees, causing a domino effect.
Finally, by day eight we got our power back but heard some really isolated areas could be weeks before that happened.
As the temperatures started to climb over the next few days, it was interesting to watch the trees including our large spruce pine shedding the ice covering, Some straightened back up, but unfortunately, a lot of them were destroyed.
Just as we were getting back to some semblance of normal, the following weekend another weather system came through, dumping several inches of rain on our area. Our children and grandchildren had come to celebrate my un-birthday (no Feb. 29 this year), so we did manage to go out for dinner, but the rest of the weekend was spent on our porch or inside.
Along with the melted ice and snow, this system created widespread flooding in areas all around us including Grayson. I heard on the news that the Ohio River near Portsmouth had almost crested at 60 feet.
The next morning we saw state crews blocking off part of our state road that runs to Morehead. When we had the chance, we found a mudslide had taken half of the road, and several places along our ridge have begun to collapse.
Who said Kentucky was boring? God willing, we’ll be back next time. Until then God bless.