ice storm

As I stood outside my front door on Monday night, I witnessed an unbelievable scene.

The climatological 'stars' aligned and freezing rain coated every outdoor surface over the northern 1/3 of the state of Arkansas... and a surreal scene unfolded.

The cold rain quickly turned every branch on every tree into an ice brick, and every tree in sight began to groan under the weight... and finally gravity won as the tops of trees began to crack like so many rifle reports across the quiet countryside. Huge trees - many of which had seen two world wars and the great depression and the turn of the century - literally split down the middle and crashed to the earth below.

Never have I seen the sights I saw and heard the sounds I heard on Monday and Tuesday. The scene will remain burned into my memory for the rest of my life, as tree after tree cracked and broke and fell to the ground.

Power lines and telephone cable gave way... some because of the sheer weight of the 2 inches of ice which had collected on them, and others because giant trees crashed down on them.

By Tuesday night, half a million people had lost electricity. As I write this on Friday evening, only about one fourth of us have power...

There are lots of lessons me and my family learned over the last week.

We were blessed indeed. Our power went out at noon Tuesday and returned Thursday about 4 pm... Throughout, we have had a gas log fireplace (which my smart wife told me to 'flip on' before we lost power) and hot water (our water heater is gas-powered) for showers. It is amazing how much 'for granted' we take these small blessings...

Please pray that everyone can be warm and safe, and that power is restored to everyone quickly.

(our local radio station has some terrific pictures of the devastation http://www.ktlo.com/09icestorm.php )

more later...

God Bless