Anyone here been through a severe ice storm?

Tornadoboy

I bite
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 5, 2006
Messages
341
Reaction score
64
Age
52
Location
Under the artillery range at Fort Wyvern
My WIP has two people trapped during a historically bad ice storm, can anyone here whom has been through a major one tell me what is was like?

In particular I'm interested in how it could effect some smaller, less maintained structures and how it might restrict foot travel.
 

KikiteNeko

.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
2,380
Reaction score
1,615
First, the grammar police say it is "who" not "whom" (sorry, had to get that out).

I'd think an ice storm would stop foot travel. But what's the time period? A lot depends on that.
 

katiemac

Five by Five
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
11,521
Reaction score
1,661
Location
Yesterday
Right. Time period is going to matter quite a bit. For example, we just lasted through a major ice storm last month that knocked out power for six days (we were lucky) and more than two weeks for others.
 

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
A big ice storm does generally stop foot travel, with 2 possible exceptions: if there is deep snow beneath the ice and the ice glaze is thin enough to stomp through, or if the individual owns creepers, metal spikes which are strapped to boots to give them lots of traction, but they'd still have to go really slow. Well, perhaps you could ice skate on it, I dunno. Certainly there would be no horse travel though, even if they could stomp through the ice, the edges of the ice glaze would cut their legs.

My main memory of living through an ice storm was the fact that the ice knocked a lot of power cables down, so my parents house had no heat, and we ended up all sleeping in one room wearing extra jammies and blankets in order to have enough heat. The thing damaged most by the ice storm was the trees. All the branches coated in ice looked kinda pretty though.
 

wordmonkey

ook
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 14, 2006
Messages
1,258
Reaction score
287
Location
North Carolina
Website
www.writingmonkey.com
We lost power for seven days a couple of years back. Obviously we live in a maintained house, but the cold seeps in. We eventually went to stay with friends, but we basically tried to ensure we all stayed in one room (and all slept in one bed with ALL the quilts on us AND we went to bed dressed as if we were going out.

We kept as much to one room as possible and opened doors as rarely as possible.

Not sure this helps much.

On a side detail issue, you might want to references trees. Younger, thinner ones will bend. We have a lot of pines and several had bent over the driveway and were stuck to the cars (I needed to cut the tops of the trees to free them from the cars and all that did was free them, they were still bent until the thaw.

Larger trees just crack and explode. And it's a VERY disconcerting sound when you realize what it is.

Hope this helps a little.
 

jeseymour

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 5, 2008
Messages
1,098
Reaction score
127
Age
61
Location
seacoast New Hampshire
Website
jeseymour.com
Hi Tornadoboy

We just had a major ice storm, last month. Our power was out for six days, and we are in a fairly populated area. It was frustrating, as our power is usually high priority, the county jail and nursing home are less than a mile from our house. I guess we're not on the same circuit. There is no foot travel in this neck of the woods, other than from the house to the car, so I can't speak to that. We did travel by car as soon as the weather cleared off, but there were roads in our town that were not cleared of trees for several days. We have a cover-it shelter for our donkeys, it's a 12 by 12 sort of sturdy tent like structure, and we moved the donkeys out of that the night of the storm. I actually woke up at 1:30 am to the sound of snapping branches and went out and moved the donkeys into the barn at that point. Our power went out about 2 hours later. The next morning there was a large branch poking through the roof of the donkey shelter, but they were able to move back in as soon as we removed the branches. We have a lot of white pine, and lost a lot of branches. It smelled like Christmas, a really strong pine smell, for days. The other thing, aside from the smell, that really stuck in my mind was the sound of the branches breaking. We are quite close to a gun range, so we hear gunfire all the time, but getting used to the cracking branches took time. It was just snap, snap, snap, all the time, for at least a day.

Because we had no power, and we are on a well, we had no water. We do have wood stoves, so we had heat, and our cook stove runs on propane, so we could cook on that. Getting water to 10 equines without water is quite a challenge. Every store in the area sold out of water containers (and gas containers and generators and D batteries) the first day. We were able to cobble together buckets with lids and a few containers we already had and drive to my parents' house (40 miles) to use their public water.

I have friends who live in more rural areas of the state (we're in New Hampshire) and they lost power for close to two weeks. They also commented on downed branches and power lines being left in the road for days. Downed power lines are no big deal until somebody plugs in a generator without knowing what they're doing and backfeeds the line.

Let me know if you'd like further details.
 

HoraceJames

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 9, 2008
Messages
278
Reaction score
54
Location
South Florida, Babylon, USA
Website
horacejames.wordpress.com
My experience: loss of electricity. Walking wasn't that big a deal because there was snow on the ground, but you had to be careful. Driving was virtually impossible unless you had chains or studded tires. Falling icicles were a danger. Tree damage, I remember banging the ice off of bushes with a shovel.

Keep in mind an ice storm is not a hail storm. An ice storm is really a rain storm with a sudden temperature drop, so on a building with a bad roof, water could get under the shingles/tile then freeze and cause more damage, then when it starts to melt a larger leak would be possible.
 

jclarkdawe

Feeling lucky, Query?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
10,297
Reaction score
3,859
Location
New Hampshire
So much of this depends upon time period and location. A lot of the problems we're having with ice storms would never have been even noticed a hundred years ago.

Structures are effected by the load weight. At a certain point, the weight on a roof will cause a collapse. The further north you are, the stronger you build your roofs to deal with this. (Right at the moment I have over a foot of snow on some of my roofs. It's not deep enough to worry about. I'm in New Hampshire. If I was in Virginia, I'd be worried.) Ice storms for northern locals are not usually that damaging to buildings.

However, one danger is a tree getting overloaded and falling on a house.

Roads are impassable except for experienced drivers. Walking on roads or solid surfaces is very difficult. However, walking in woods and on grass might not be very bad, depending upon the storm. Livestock is at very high risk.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe
 

johnnysannie

Banned
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
3,857
Reaction score
435
Location
Tir Na Og
Website
leeannsontheimermurphywriterauthor.blogspot.com
My WIP has two people trapped during a historically bad ice storm, can anyone here whom has been through a major one tell me what is was like?

In particular I'm interested in how it could effect some smaller, less maintained structures and how it might restrict foot travel.

I was in a major ice storm two years ago this month and it was a horrible experience. We had no power for more than two weeks. At the time we lived in a mobile home which was seriously damaged (pipes froze, floor was weakened, etc). Depending on the location, foot traffic can be/was impedded by fallen limbs. Walking was also somewhat treacherous on foot because of slick conditions - I fell on my rear more than once, several times quite hard.

We lived in the country, finally got out over slick roads so that we could stay with my folks in town. They did not have power either but they did have a wood stove.

The entire town was like something out of the Third World; stores would be open for a couple of hours a day, you shopped either by daylight or flashlight, buying what little they had to offer.

Not an experience I would care to repeat!
 

Puma

Retired and loving it!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
7,340
Reaction score
1,535
Location
Central Ohio
I've been in some very memorable ice storms. Most memorable was back in the 60's. As evening fell the ice kept building up and up. There were the sounds of popping trees and limbs coming down. But ... what was most impressive was watching transformers on electric poles down the road blow. There would be a flash and then an intense pinkish glow for several minutes as the things went. There were almost no cars out. But, my dumb brother had decided to drive the 25 miles home from school so we were all waiting up for him. Our road is almost straight. About midnight I saw car lights suddenly appear reflecting off the trees far down the road. We waited and watched as the reflected lights kept coming. An hour later my brother pulled into our driveway - because of the ice I had been able to see him five miles away when he turned the corner onto our road. (We were glad to have him home.)

The next day we were all outside (in our knee boots) picking up branches and knocking ice off. The surface was hard enough we didn't break through so it was much like skating across the surface. Slick and not the easiest stuff to walk on.

Another time (early 50's) we actually skated on the road up to the little town a mile away to get groceries (pulled a sled behind us).

Right now we've just had an ice and snow storm. The trees are coated in about a half inch of ice and bent over. If you brush past a tree it makes cracking noises so I worry about damaging them. But, in this case, there was snow down first so when you walk outside you break through the ice crust with a scrunching noise. I had to batter the bird feeder with a broom handle to get it open to put in seed (and then there was so much ice on the wire attaching the lid the lid wouldn't go up very far.)

Structurally an ice storm isn't going to do that much damage to buildings. Much worse is icicles that develop from snow melt off roofs where buildings are warm inside and not that well insulated. The ice builds up dams in the gutters and then wrecks havoc with the edge of the roof and house facings.

Hope that helps. Puma
 
Last edited:

cbenoi1

Banned
Joined
Dec 30, 2008
Messages
5,038
Reaction score
977
Location
Canada
> In particular I'm interested in how it could effect some smaller, less
> maintained structures and how it might restrict foot travel.

I live in Montreal, and experienced the 1998 ice storm front row and center.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_ice_storm_of_1998

Basically, anything less than two inches in diameter broke off or bent beyond repair. Wires and tree branches all over the place, willow and birch trees bent all the way to the ground (most barely above rupture point). People remained home because there was a light thaw in the days that followed and falling icicles were heard all over the place.

I don't recall major structures to be hit - like roofs caving in. Falling trees did put dents here and there, but apart from the collapsing electricity towers, the city remained intact.

-cb
 

ideagirl

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 1, 2005
Messages
1,039
Reaction score
143
I'd think an ice storm would stop foot travel.

It wouldn't necessarily stop foot travel. I have lived in places where, post-ice storm, people got around on cross-country skis. Or skates, for that matter--I remember skating to elementary school, which was at least half a mile away. Skis work better post-blizzard than post-ice storm, but usually you should be able to ski after an ice storm--the ice is on tree branches and stuff, but there's generally snow on the ground, although it may have a thin crust of ice on it. But generally, once the ice storm stops, you can get around--it's a complete PITA, but you can do it. Skis, skates or just good winter boots are all you need. Often enough, you get some snowfall after an ice storm, which gives you more optimal conditions for the skis and may give you some traction for the boots.

Of course, it would likely stop foot travel if it happened in a place that wasn't used to ice storms. There was an ice storm in Dallas the other day--I doubt they would even own winter boots down there, let alone cross-country skis, and in any case, everyone south of the Mason-Dixie line seems to think that visible snow on the ground (let alone ice!) makes the entire world temporarily impassible, so they would stay inside.

But if this happened in Michigan or New York or something, no problem. They might not even cancel school. When I was a kid there had to be at least three feet of snow for us to get a snow day.
 
Last edited:

ideagirl

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 1, 2005
Messages
1,039
Reaction score
143
Roads are impassable except for experienced drivers.

Let me just add, "and Subarus." Hahaha.

Walking on roads or solid surfaces is very difficult. However, walking in woods and on grass might not be very bad, depending upon the storm.

The social rules tend to change in severe weather. For example, post-ice storm, generally you can walk across people's yards if the sidewalks and streets are slick with ice. So yeah, it's a total PITA to get around on foot, but it's do-able in the wake of all but the most severe storms.
 

ideagirl

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 1, 2005
Messages
1,039
Reaction score
143
Wow, quite a story, Jeseymour.

Getting water to 10 equines without water is quite a challenge.

Another point about water that you might not know if you're not from a snowy place: it's a bad idea to try and stay hydrated (or keep animals hydrated) by eating snow or ice. You really need to melt it first. I forget why this is, haha, but it's one of those rules that gets ingrained in you when you grow up in a cold place, much like "never take a nap in the snow" or "if you're lost in the snow, DO NOT LIE DOWN" (because you'll likely fall asleep and freeze to death).

I'm sure some google-fu could reveal the reason you have to melt it first. But anyway, there's some more cold-country trivia...
 

Autodidact

...in my Maidenform Bra.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
2,036
Reaction score
159
Location
Queen City of the Plains
As far as walking or driving, it's basically like a skating rink. You can walk a little, slowly and carefully, and you really cannot drive.
 

Maryn

Sees All
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
55,429
Reaction score
25,446
Location
Snow Cave
We lost power for 13 days following an ice storm in upstate New York, an area fully prepared for winter. You can't really prepare for ice.

The heavy coating of clear ice is indeed lovely. Search for pictures and you'll see it coating signs, trees, berries, bikes, bird feeders, exterior stairs, even the interior of a car. (Somebody wishes he'd rolled up the window, I bet.)

The weight of the ice breaks off tree branches in huge numbers, then limbs, some of them enormous. Many trees cleave themselves in two. Each break sounds something like a gunshot, and it goes on and on, some close, some distant. Shallow-rooted trees like pines fall over of their own weight, so it looks like a tornado went through.

Trees weighted with ice go right through a few unlucky roofs and crush cars stuck in driveways by downed limbs. Electrical wires are broken all over the place, and some of them take down the poles on which they're mounted. The connection point(s) of electrical service (and phone and cable TV) to house may also fall of its own iced weight. Gutters pull off and land on landscaping and walkways, so weighted by ice that two men can't haul them out of the way.

Small structures are more likely to fare well than large ones, because of the decreased expanse of roof and the corresponding weight of the amassed ice. Once a thaw finally comes, lots of big roofs leak.

However, any building sheltered by trees could suffer damage. It's quite likely that nobody can get a car on the road, or go very far if they do, since downed limbs and trees block roads and are a lower priority than power. Mail delivery was indeed halted for, IIRC, a week or so.

Schools closed and shelters opened, but not many people took advantage unless they were very old or had a baby in the house. Neighbors with power ran heavy-duty extension cords to power furnaces across the street. Friends hosted whole families.

Walking following an ice storm is treacherous. The clear ice is not always visible, and if the temperature gets above 25 or so, or if the sun shines at all, it's topped with a thin layer of water, making it a lot like walking on a Slip 'n Slide. Falls with bruises or broken bones were not uncommon among those who walked their neighborhoods.

Local governments declared a state of emergency and citizens were urged not to travel unless they had an emergency, by car or on foot. For many people, work constituted an emergency, as businesses which did not lose power continued to operate, staffed by people who'd spent the night four to a bed under all the covers in the house.

The first responders? Pizza delivery resumed by noon the next day, long before we saw anybody from a utility company. Local pizza places hired the friends of their employees and sent car loads as close as roads would allow, then had everybody pile out and hand deliver on foot. Big tips were a done deal.

Maryn, who baked every single day and spent a lot of time at museums, too
 

Lady_of_Myth

Registered
Joined
Jan 26, 2009
Messages
29
Reaction score
3
Icestorm

I have never personally been through a very severe icestorm, I've been through atleast one that knocked out the local power for a few days. If you want a good account of a really severe icestorm read the Laura Ingalls Wilder book The Long Winter;
its all true it really happened eventhough in most libraries its listed as fiction, that's because she changed the name of one or two people for privacy reasons.

Contrary to what someone posted earlier in the book they used horses, though every couple minutes they had to stop and break the ice off the horses noses so they wouldn't suffocate.
 

Ol' Fashioned Girl

Hand? What hand?
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 31, 2005
Messages
15,640
Reaction score
6,849
Location
Last Star on the Right
Website
www.jenniferdahl.com
Wow, quite a story, Jeseymour.



Another point about water that you might not know if you're not from a snowy place: it's a bad idea to try and stay hydrated (or keep animals hydrated) by eating snow or ice. You really need to melt it first. I forget why this is, haha, but it's one of those rules that gets ingrained in you when you grow up in a cold place, much like "never take a nap in the snow" or "if you're lost in the snow, DO NOT LIE DOWN" (because you'll likely fall asleep and freeze to death).

I'm sure some google-fu could reveal the reason you have to melt it first. But anyway, there's some more cold-country trivia...

It'll make you colder - from the inside out - and lower your core temperature. That's a bad thing. ;)
 

Julie Worth

What? I have a title?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
5,198
Reaction score
915
Location
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ice storms are most annoying, especially if you live in a town with lots of trees, which fall over and take down power lines. I had a line down behind my house, covered up with a fallen oak. Sparks flew in spectacular fashion until the tree burst into flames, then the whole neighborhood went dark. Being without power for ten days was the most miserable aspect of the storm, while the ice itself was only a problem for a day or two.
 

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you
Requiescat In Pace
Registered
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
20,006
Reaction score
5,352
Location
Going shopping with Soccer Mom and Bubastes for fu
I have never personally been through a very severe icestorm, I've been through atleast one that knocked out the local power for a few days. If you want a good account of a really severe icestorm read the Laura Ingalls Wilder book The Long Winter;
its all true it really happened eventhough in most libraries its listed as fiction, that's because she changed the name of one or two people for privacy reasons.

Contrary to what someone posted earlier in the book they used horses, though every couple minutes they had to stop and break the ice off the horses noses so they wouldn't suffocate.

First off, The Long Winter is about a series of blizzards, not ice storms. second, the episode you're referring to (with the horses) occurs in These Happy Golden Years, again--it was a cold snap and there was snow, not ice.

There are scenes in The Long Winter where the horses would break through the snow into the slough grass, but again, that had nothing to do with ice.

Having just gotten my power back from an ice storm (thank God; it was COLD in this house last night) I can tell you that I wouldn't walk outside right not on a bet. We did have snow fall on top of the ice yesterday, so it's like the whole world is shifting beneath you as you walk and then BOOM! you fall the six inches below the inch of ice to where the ground is and it HURTS.
 

Puma

Retired and loving it!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
7,340
Reaction score
1,535
Location
Central Ohio
Does anyone remember the Blizzard of '78? (Besides me, that is.) That was some of the worst ice I've ever seen - but not from an ice storm. It was warm and there was a lot of rain. Then it turned cold too quickly and the water running on the roads and cars froze into weird shapes. We had one place on our road we called the iceberg because the height of the uneven ice that had frozen in an ever increasing pile from the water run off was a good two feet above the surface of the road. It was a real trip to go across that. Cars were frozen onto whatever surfaces they'd been on - even where they were abandoned on the roads. It took some real doing to chip them out when things finally were returning to normal. Puma
 

cbenoi1

Banned
Joined
Dec 30, 2008
Messages
5,038
Reaction score
977
Location
Canada
> Does anyone remember the Blizzard of '78?

It wasn't that big - at least on the East Coast. And I have filmed the one in '71 with my father. The snow covered both the front and the back doors. I think we got something like 5' of snow in 72 hours. No school for a week. I was soooooooooo happy... |8-}

-cb
 

psaluka

Registered
Joined
Dec 28, 2008
Messages
22
Reaction score
3
Location
The arctic circle (NY near Canada)
I live in Montreal, and experienced the 1998 ice storm front row and center.-cb


I was taking a interim class at SUNY Potsdam during that storm (just past Cornwall on the American side) It was a totally different experience for me than it was for a lot of people around here because the college had its own powerplant. They turned the gym hall into a shelter and we spent hours volunteering. People came there from all over. It felt awesome to actually be able to help with something. I got "adopted" by this couple who were stuck there also, Carl and Bernard. We (stupidly) broke curfew to go sledding and ate ramen (more than usual). I do remember that a few people in the area got electrocuted outside. And I remember little things also, like some friends who lost all their fish in their tank.
 

Puma

Retired and loving it!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
7,340
Reaction score
1,535
Location
Central Ohio
Hi cbenoi1 - '78 was very bad in Ohio. I also remember the blizzard of 1950 - the snow bowl of the Ohio State Michigan football game. '78 was much worse. I don't think we got hit in '71 - at least not by anything memorable. Puma