We were without electricity for two days, Monday and Tuesday. With temperatures in the 20's and 30's it was a bit nipply. Much of Oklahoma is still without power so we feel pretty fortunate.
We went to Walmart yesterday. Apparently so did everyone else. There were some people hanging out there just to keep warm and chat with who ever would hear their story and everyone has one. People were buying generators like crazy.
We have gas heat but without electricity to power the central fan there's no heat. Luckily we have a fireplace so we tarped off the back of the house and camped out in the living room. My couch makes out into a bed. Jennifer slept on the floor in her sleeping bag in front of the fireplace. Our hot water tank is gas so we could still take a warm shower, however without lights it was a little tricky shaving.
This is my front yard taken from a neighbors yard. That big one in the middle is a silver maple. most of the others are lace bark elms.
This is looking at my front door. It's a bit tricky getting there right now. Mark has a chain saw but it's electric.
Sunday night we woke up several times hearing loud crashes as tree limbs fell. Two fell on my roof, but didn't damage it. One fell on my Honda, but there was a half inch thick layer of ice on it so it didn't damage the car. I still have large twigs frozen in ice on my car roof. That's how we found it in the sea of vehicles in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
The next two are my backyard.
We have the most trees in our neighborhood, ten in the frontyard and eight in the back. I just hope we can save most of them.
People were driving by real slow staring. Heck who needs Christmas decorations.
I have two black jack trees in the backyard that hardly have any damage. For y'all non-Okies those are native scrub oaks that grow wild in Oklahoma. Most people cut down black jacks and plant "more appealing" trees. I like black jacks for many reasons. They grow well in drought and can withstand ice storms. You have to be tough to live in Oklahoma and black jacks are tough trees.
I have a gas stove with electronic ignitors. Using a match the old fashioned way I could light the burners, however my oven is turned on by an electronic panel sooo.
You can make cornbread by frying it in an iron skillet on the stove top. Toast can be made with tongs held over a burner.
A woman on the news cooked a roast on her floor furnace. Her food in the freezer was going to go bad if she didn't cook it so she invited her neighbors over for dinner.
OG&E has brought in people from as far away as West Virginia to get the electric lines back up and running.
Even today my electricity occasionally flickers on and off. Until they get the lines all repaired we'll see a lot of that.
