The snow turned to sleet in late morning, and turned to freezing rain by early afternoon. Eight hours later, everything is covered in a thick transparent casing. Standing outside, a branch can be heard snapping every ten seconds. Once a minute, a huge crash can be heard as a limb or a tree comes crashing down under the weight of the ice.
Our power flickers regularly. Once it went out for about ten seconds. Everybody we’ve talked to (and every fax machine we’ve dialed) is without electricity. We’ve been lucky so far.
A little flickering so far here near Hydraulic and Commonwealth, but so far so good.
Of course the tree right behind my house that I was always afraid would fall did just that. Right on top of our dining room. Fortunately, no damage besides two lost gutters and a patio FULL of limbs and pine needles.
And if I had taken out the garbage ten seconds earlier I would have been right under it all.
Much of the University and in the area around JPA took a hit as well. I was actually in the Newcomb dining hall when the power went out there. Lots of downed branches, a few accidents (one friend of mine slid out on 29 in the middle of the afternoon and hit a sign), even considering that the roads for the most part are more wet than icy. I’m glad it will be warmer tomorrow, I have to leave town and icy roads would not be conducive to that trip.
Our home in Ivy was without juice from about 6:45 Thursday until about 7:00pm Friday. After the first flicker, I filled up the Kero-Sun heater and dug out the flashlights. An LED headlamp is a good thing to have. Friday, at the office, it really sucked watching the Dominion website. Didn’t seem like we were getting any repair crew love.