KY's Perfect Storm

[Ron Kruger]

I've been out of commission--no electricity, no internet access--for over 2 weeks. I'll post some shots here of the worst ice storm I've ever witnessed. These two show how thick the ice was on trees. On flat surfaces, it was at least three inches thick. I've never seen anything like it.

[Ron Kruger]

Here's a house down the road that shows the damage this storm did to trees. None of them escaped intact and many will die.

[Ron Kruger]

Here's the coolest shot I made of the mess.

[Ron Kruger]

And below is how I described in my column what it was like to experience this storm:
The Perfect (Ice) Storm
By Ron Kruger
Usually I fill this space with outdoors activities and all things natural. But recently the entire outdoors was filled with such an unusual phenomenon that the weather itself trumps all other stories. We just experienced the perfect ice storm.
Unlike the merging hurricanes that collided on the high seas to create a storm of immense and unequalled proportions, our “perfect storm” came quietly and gently, with a drizzle and light rain that lasted for a couple of days and nights.
Slowly and gradually, the ice accumulated with tremendous weight upon everything the eye could see. Ice storms are nothing new on this latitude, and except for a few broken limbs and minor power outages, most of them create a panorama of unique, glittering beauty.
But this was different—much different. This storm came with evil intentions, devastating destruction and life-threatening ramifications. Most ice storms create only temporary incontinences to our pampered and climatically controlled existences, and my only worry is for how wild creatures survive them. This one, however, created ongoing, life-threatening situations for thousands of people.
Officials are calling it “the worst natural disaster in Kentucky’s history,” and while such hyperbole usually is open to question or challenges, I can find nothing to dispute it. I’ve never seen anything like it, and as I’ve confessed on the printed page before, I’m old.
It is common for witnesses to describe the aftermath of such natural disasters as looking ‘like a war zone,” but for hours on end, being in this storm was like being in a war zone during a “shock and awe” assault.
Mine is just one of thousands of stories. My humble lodgings sit on the outskirts of Marion, KY (Crittenden County), which was undoubtedly “one of the hardest hit areas” of this storm’s multi-state rage. Though technically within the city limits, I am surrounded by pine trees, and as the crystalline bulk built upon the needles and limbs, they came crashing down all around and upon us.
As the tops and upper limbs of these tall pines broke loose, they did so with loud, splitting crackles, like mortar shells fired from distant artillery. As they plummeted through the lower branches (taking some of them with them), hundreds of ice fingers shattered and fell in unison, and when the whole thing reached the ground, it sounded very much like an explosion, with all the ice fingers like shrapnel spreading all directions from the impact area.
The worst of the assault came after midnight and well after power failure plunged us into darkness. By candle light we listened and wondered. Our home became a foxhole of uncertain protection against the awesome power of nature’s military might.
This relentless barrage of evergreen explosions went on for hours, one after the other. Sometimes two or three fell together, their explosions overlapping each other like rolling thunder. There was no particular cadence to it, and no way of telling if the next one would be a direct hit.
At least three times during the worst of it, huge limbs crashed onto our roof, shaking the entire structure, rattling dishes, knocking paintings from the walls and dislodging light fixtures from the ceiling. One pine tree split down the middle, sending nearly equal haves in opposite direction. One half took out my old woods car, shattering the windshield and totaling the exterior.
Toward daylight the barrage decreased and I ventured out, being careful not to walk under anything. It wasn’t just the pines around my place, but every tree in sight was damaged. Trees for as far as I could see were topped and trimmed in ugly and random fashion, and many were so badly gutted, they are sure to die.
Everything sparkled and glistened, but this time it was difficult to find much beauty amongst the blanket of destruction.
It, indeed, looked like a war zone.

[Loupey]

What an experience to go through! Thanks for sharing these and checking back with us.

I think they're looking for you in the viewfinder forum

[Ron Kruger]

It was amazing, Loupey. We were without electricity for 11 days. My car is totalled, and I couldn't get my truck out for the whole first week. I live at the end of a road, and the entire road and yard with like a giant brush pile, with a couple of whole pine trees laying across the road. All this stuff was imbedded in ice at least three inches thick. I couldn't even pick a twig from this ice concrete and had to wait for someone with a tractor and a scoop to clear the road and literally dig my truck out of a huge brush pile.
Not having internet access was the worst, because it put me out of business for almost three weeks..

[Dylan8i]

ouch glad to see your ok, and made it through with just car damage ( and that can happen with out an ice storm, as we have had the top of a tulip (yellow popular) tree fall on our car in our drive way) and an experience to last a life time.

i always fee solice in the fact that i alway have my backpacking/camping gear if anything were to go wrong like that, the worst we have had was 4 days with out power, but we still had water and gas....

[Ron Kruger]

We're all electric, so we had nothing. We toughed it out for the first couple of days, and I probably would have stayed, but my wife couldn't take it when the temperature in our home got below 40 degrees. So we moved into the hospital where she works. The hospital was on generator power, but on the second day, the whole area was without water as well, so they evacuated all the patients too. We had no running water for about a week, until FEMA brought in a huge generator to run the water plant.
For the first week, we had no power, no personal transportation, no running water, no gas, no fuel of any kind to run generators and such. The local school had generator power, and they set it up as a shelter. One day I helped some hospital staff deliver some oxygen tanks there, and the crowding, the smell and the looks on people's faces reminded me of what I saw on CNN at the New Orleans stadium during Catrina.
I've camped during the winter, too, and believe me, I would have pitched a tent before moving into that shelter. It was that bad.

[Ron Kruger]

Here's another shot the morning after, taken from my place across a field, looking toward town.

[Frog]

I can only remember one ice storm here in western wa and it was awful. I remember the trees on the hill surrounding town seeming to explode.
It was nothing compared to what you got.
Glad you are ok...people been asking about you and our other Kentucky friends in veiwfinder.

[mjs1973]

Good to see you back and OK Ron!

[Old Timer]

Great to have you back with us Ron. You guys sure took a pounding. My section of the state in the northeastern corner seemed to take the lest amount of damage form the ice but we ended up with a lot more snow. It's going to take a while for the state to get back to normal.

[scott-devon]

Glad you made it through ok Ron. Welcome back.

[draymorton]

Beautiful shots, Ron. And again, glad that you and your wife are okay.

[Singletracklovr]

Great story, Awesome pictures.
Thanks Ron

[Martin Brazil]

Wow, ice is not something we see much of down here except on the beer.
Some great shot there Ron.
Keep warm now.

[OldClicker]

Welcome back. Nature can be really humbling at times - I think it's good for us. - TF

[Shebang]

Oh, my. Reading of your experience brought back memories of our Oklahoma ice storm last year which was near the magnitude you are currently in.

Until you have actually lived through it, you can't imagine how scary it is to be sleeping in a house wondering if the huge limbs hitting your house are going to come through the roof or not. We were without power 11 days, but thanks to the foresight of my father in years past, we had a generator to run the heater and overhead lights and one wall socket for the refrigerator and my dad's oxygen machine. (He is dying of emphysema and cannot go without it -- or heat.) Finding gas to keep it going was a real challenge, but we were living in luxury compared to most.

A huge oak tree came down on my sister's house and through the bedroom roof where her daughter sleeps. It shook the entire house, but thankfully no one was injured.

My deepest sympathies for what you are going through. It is not fun and makes you appreciate all the luxuries (like heat and light and water) that we often take for granted.

[slayer7124]

Wow, crazy story indeed. Ice storms can be beautiful, but they usually cause a big mess first.

[I_Fly]

It's great to see that you're ok Ron. We had an ice storm here (in Western Illinois) this past December that I thought was bad, with about an inch to inch and a half of ice. I can't imagine 3 inches or more and how bad that would be.

Kentucky's also going to have to worry about fire danger now also. All of those dead trees, limbs, branches and debris will be a recipe for disaster in the summer months. We had that issue when I lived in NW Arkansas after an ice storm.

The photos you posted are beautiful and scary to those of us that have had a taste of that danger. I especially like the photo of the full moon. I'd like to see and hear more about your "adventures".

[SARtech]

Glad to hear you and family are ok. What an ordeal and what a mess to clean up.

[A.M.D.A.]

Wow , glad to hear you're OK Ron! I must admit I was getting a tiny bit worried since you hadn't checked in for a while...

Those are good pics, thanks for sharing them along with the story.

[Ron Kruger]

Well, I'll add this for those interested:
Even with the lessons of Catrina, the response from the National Guard and FEMA was dismal and generally too slow.
During the first week or so, when we needed help the most, we saw nothing of FEMA, and though the Guard was around, about all they did was stand around waiting for orders.
FEMA showed up with all kinds of water about the time the water came back on. We still needed it, because the water for the first few days was hazardous to drink. The Guard was supposedly knocking on doors to see if anyone needed help, but I saw none of that until well into the second week, and when I stopped to talk to one of them, I found out they were gardsmen from Florida, not Kentucky.
The responses from government agencies is still a bureaucratic mess and far too slow to really be of much help when it is needed most. The response was a little better than during Catrina, but it was still far too slow and mostly ineffectual.
A FEMA medical team showed up at the hospital well after it already was closed and evacuated, and they just took up space for about a week and then left.
Local people huddled together, checked on each other and no doubt saved a bunch of lives during that first week when the Guard was standing around and FEMA was trying to figure out how to get here and what to do.
Generally, I believe all this "government disaster" assistance is a huge waste of taxpayer's money, and I've already figured out that their "desaster relief" programs are a joke as well, unless you've already got so much money you don't need it in the first place.

[Ron Kruger]

And another thing: I know for a fact the utility companies were lying about the number of people still without power. During the second week, I was able to get my truck out, so I had some access to information through the radio. A spokesperson for Kentucky Utilities said at one point that 1,400 people were still without power in Crittenden County, and there wasn't a single light to be seen anywhere in Marion or the surrounding area. Marion alone is over 3,000 people.
A day or two later, most of Marion lit up and this spokesperson changed her story to 1,200 people still without power.
At this writing, I'm sure we still have more than 1,400 people still without power in the rural areas, and they won't see lights for at least a couple more weeks. On some roads, miles of poles are down and it takes some time to replace them all and then re-string the wires.
At the time this spokesperson said 1,400 people were still without power, some of the major towers running from the TVA main generating station at Kentucky Dam were twisted and bent and down, and some of them were in areas that were hard to reach with heavy equipment, so entire power grids were still out.
That's probably the most amazing thing about the destructive power of this ice storm. These towers are huge, built of heavy steel, and this ice was so thick and heavy, it twisted and broke them like tinker toys, so you can image what it did to trees.
Parts of this area will not look the same for decades.

[Shebang]

FEMA = Find Every Means Available YOURSELF! or maybe Fix Every Mess Alone... you get the idea.

Waste of money, indeed. How disaster relief in this country can be so incompetent is simply mind-boggling.