Can’t say the same thing for our trees, though. Our neighborhood looks like a bomb hit it. I have lots of photos that I’ll post when I have a chance.

We got around two inches of ice over a 24 hour period and lost power early Tuesday afternoon. Limbs were already crashing to the ground at that point and continued doing so for the remainder of the storm. Some trees are so badly damaged that they will have to be cut down completely. Our electric line was completely severed by either falling branches or ice buildup.

The entire county has been without power since Tuesday. The devastation is all across the area, but Western Kentucky and Arkansas have been declared federal disaster areas by Obama after being hit especially hard. We spent the first night at home with no heat, under multiple layers of clothing and blankets. The temperature in the house was 50 degrees the next morning and had dropped into the 40′s by the next evening. We slept on the floor at our neighbor’s house that night because she has a small kerosene heater. There was no running water when we got up the next morning, but not because of frozen pipes. The water systems had failed for large portions of the city and county due to lack of electricity.

The remainder of this week has been spent running all over the place trying to find kerosene so that we could keep warm. We sat in line three hours to purchase gasoline one day and were finally able to secure some furnace fuel today – from an elderly man in town who has some stored in 55 gallon drums.

Thankfully, a nearby city is starting to come back on line and we have been staying at the home of some gracious church friends who have electricity and water. They opened their home to people they know (us and many others) and even people they didn’t know (our neighbor and her son). They define hospitality.

Although it is expected to take weeks to restore power to our rural area, things are beginning to look up. The sun came out and melted most of the ice today. I am able to access the internet via my mobile phone (go, Verizon!) and through a friend’s computer. We have plenty of food, water, and warmth.

And lots and lots of love…