How's the first winter storm treating YOU guys?

DeadFish · « **on:** 1 Dec 2006, 05:13 am »

Having a heckuva good time playing 'Guess what hit the house THIS time' here.

For about 5 hours now, my neighborhood sounds like the first day of deer season.

Limbs on all sides of the house, phone pulled off, power pulled off AGAIN (as in last july). But both still work, for the time being.

It's friggin' weird. Lots o' ice, lots of bent down trees.

Sure glad the house is warm and the wires are still connected! I'm afraid to look at it in the daytime, as my roof has taken a beating by the sounds of it.

Hope all are well out there...

Best Regards,
Bill

bpape · « **Reply #1 on:** 1 Dec 2006, 05:41 am »

I can't believe it's STILL sleeting! I don't think I've ever seen it sleet for almost 12 hours straight. We're just starting to get acouple of 'brown outs' but still have power.

Had to go down and shut off the stereo - #*&q# - trying to break that new preamp in.

Bryan

alexstl · « **Reply #2 on:** 1 Dec 2006, 05:54 am »

Hi Bill, sorry to hear about your roof. It is midnight and I just came in from my backyard cutting down fallen limbs laying across my phone line. Eerie and scary when I heard the crash. Another limb came down while I was underneath and I just ran out and away from it. Tree trimmers will have a good Xmas. Hope all of our GAS family is safe and has power in the morning. Alex

steve k · « **Reply #3 on:** 1 Dec 2006, 12:49 pm »

Ditto with all of you. We've had limbs falling all night, many in my pond, many on the roof. My gazebo is no more. Luckily nothing has hit the phone line or power lines so far. Looks like 400,000 homes are out here in old St. Lou this morning. I feel for those lineworkers. Bryan, you might want to consider a portable generator to burn your preamp in

I did the same thing, shut all the stereo and computers down last night. Looks like the storm is finally moving on thank God! Enough's enough!!
steve

bpape · « **Reply #4 on:** 1 Dec 2006, 01:01 pm »

Just went down and fired it back up. Looks like we survived unscathed pretty much other than the foot of ice at the end of the driveway.

Sorry to hear about the Gazebo and roof Steve. Good luck to you too Bill. Hopefully it won't be as bad as you think in the daylight.

Bryan

Scott F. · « **Reply #5 on:** 1 Dec 2006, 05:38 pm »

Looks as if the power flickered at some point last night but fortunately we still have it. Satellite internet was down this morning but all is well now. We've probably got a solid inch or two of ice and another 4 or 5 inches of snow on top of it. Needless to say, I'm not going anywhere for a few days with my house being surrounded by hills. Sounds like a good reason to stay in an paint. If I never see a can of paint again, it will be too soon.

Bill Baker · « **Reply #6 on:** 1 Dec 2006, 05:43 pm »

Quote

Sounds like a good reason to stay in an paint. If I never see a can of paint again, it will be too soon

At least you can hang out and enjoy some tunes while doing your chores. As long as the electricity hangs in there! I am getting ready to go through my store now and unplug everything till these severe storms pass. All the kids are home from school already due to the potential of these storms.
I'm heading home but I don't feel like painting. Maybe hang out with the little ones and watch a movie.

Dmason · « **Reply #7 on:** 1 Dec 2006, 06:17 pm »

Yes, it got down to 43' last night. Today there are some clouds to the north of here, with some moisture in their bottoms, wind offshore out of the NE. Pressure dropped 4 milibars. Sunny, and quite cool, dry. We are definitely able to detect the effects of the storm here in San Diego...watching the news clips on Fox.

WEEZ · « **Reply #8 on:** 1 Dec 2006, 06:47 pm »

We were fortunate..just got the edge of it. Rain; wind blew everything around; it was 70 yesterday; about 35 today and heading colder.

Hope you all escaped any damage. I hate winter

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #9 on:** 1 Dec 2006, 08:04 pm »

Quote from: alexstl on 1 Dec 2006, 05:54 am

Tree trimmers will have a good Xmas. Hope all of our GAS family is safe and has power in the morning.

Alex, how much excursion does a tree trimmer have?

Sorry, bad joke.

No power as of about 10:00pm last night. This morning, I was one of many at The Home Depots "Generator line". I've had enough of this borrowing crap.
It's a BAAAD, MAMBA JAMBA too. Electric start - 8,000 watts - 13,500 watt surge - auto shut off - fuel gauge. Yea baby!! aa
Went FIVE days without power this past spring. Made due with a 4,000 watt loaner.
Not this time!

4WD truck was nice to have, able to climb over a few tree trunks that had fallen over the road this morning.

Bob

gooberdude · « **Reply #10 on:** 1 Dec 2006, 08:29 pm »

My folks are in OFallon, IL...right on the E. Side. Most of the town is w/o power, and the development where my sister lives lost a dozen 50' tall Pine trees - quite a mess.

For once chi-town doesn't get blasted - hope the StL folk get power back soon...

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #11 on:** 2 Dec 2006, 04:03 am »

Yea bunch of trees down here too. Can't stand the extra weight of the ice.
Managed to have power restored today. Simply amazing!
Much faster than last time.

Bob - 120v again aa

accentstryping · « **Reply #12 on:** 2 Dec 2006, 05:19 am »

Damn guys is it really that #%^$$^$!!!! I mean bad out there? Is it really that cold? unseasonably? I have March gas contracts and I'm wondering if I should order my Avalons Isis's now or wait till Jan.?
Are your local utilities using coal? Should I double down on my WLT?

happiest place on earth, Anaheim,Ca.
MMM

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #13 on:** 2 Dec 2006, 12:16 pm »

No, 20-30 degrees F is not that cold. The problem with the electricity is if you've got a tree close to powerlines and that tree falls on the line, then BAM, everyone down stream has no power. Now when you do that do an entire city, state, or a FEW states then yes, it get messy. One of the most beautiful things in the world is living in the woods and having everything around you coated in ice. MAN, you talk about cool seeing the morning sun rise through trees with every single twig encased in a perfect tomb of crystal clear ice. Yea baby. It's cool as hell.
Until you remember that ice has entombed your car, your house, your mailbox, every square inch of street.....EVERYTHING!
Then reality sets in.
Temperature in the midwest this winter has been unseasonably warm. The other day it was 70+ F.
I don't think you should "brace for the worst", but you should always be prepared for what Mother Nature can do to you.

Yes, local utility uses coal. Four trains each with 100+ coal cars rolls into the Labadie power plant everyday with more fuel to keep the St. Louis and surrounding area with power for a few more hours.

What is WLT?

Bob

p.s. I just found this graphic from the AmerenUE (power company) It's a graphical representation of the power outages around the area.

One more cool thing, here's a list of outages by zipcode (note the areas that start with 63XXX are the lions share of St. Louis city and county)
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/B50DDE5F5B6C2FED86257237004B2198?OpenDocument

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #14 on:** 2 Dec 2006, 01:02 pm »

For you "tropical climate" guys....
Imagine this tree was larger, and closer to a utility wire/pole....

Then you might end up with some power lines looking like these....

Scott F. · « **Reply #15 on:** 2 Dec 2006, 02:28 pm »

.....here's a few early morning pics...

snowrise

sorry about the black construction barrier but we've got a new subdivision going in the field behind my house. the ice encrusted treetops across the valley still look pretty cool though.

tree line going down the valley

entombed

looking down the valley

sure wish i had a better camera. these were taken with a (now) ancient 2 megapixel sony mvc-fd97. a canon d20 is on my christmas list but i think its going to have to wait until next year.

enjoy!

Scott F. · « **Reply #16 on:** 2 Dec 2006, 03:33 pm »

heres a couple more now that the sun is up....

from the back deck to give some perspective

icicle

iced treetops

steve k · « **Reply #17 on:** 2 Dec 2006, 04:12 pm »

Nice pics Scott. I hate to dowse all this elation but this is what I woke up to yesterday after as Deadfish said, listening to things hit the roof all night. But most importantly, we still have power. We're extremely lucky this time around.
steve

Jos · « **Reply #18 on:** 2 Dec 2006, 07:02 pm »

Strange that you guys still have your power wires above the ground. I live in the Netherlands and everything that has to do with power or communication is underground. Never any trouble with trees falling on wires.
Beautiful pictures, though!

Jos

steve k · « **Reply #19 on:** 2 Dec 2006, 07:15 pm »

We like to think we're "progressive" in the US. Unfortunately, it's propaganda most of the time.
steve

How's the first winter storm treating YOU guys?

accentstryping