Ice storm '05

[Al Smith]

We,in northern Ohio,happened to be in the middle of 3 converging storm fronts [oh lucky us] ,the result of which ,are in the pictures.The resulting ice,which was 3/4 to 1 inch thick,had power lines and trees down for miles .The tree folks and linemen,have been working,sun up til sun down,since late wednesday.I got my power back today,about 2 pm,having ran on my generater since then.

 

[sedanman]

Interesting how mother nature can be so destructive yet look good doing it. Some of the pictures of ice storm look beautiful, just up to the point where the trees and power lines come down.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Dang. Good luck to ya!

 

[SAMSON]

I am cleaning up 2 acres in Richfield and they got hit hard with that storm Al

 

[bottlefed89]

We've got it atleast as bad here in Kansas City Missouri. I'll try to take some pics tomorrow. I have 33 commercial snow/ice removal accounts, and of course do tree work. Needless to say, I've been busy and haven't slept much this week. I just got my chipper last week, and built a box on my flatbed f350 last night, I love the chipper. I try to convey a pretty professional image, but that's hard to do dragging brush to a trailer. Now I stand out from the rest of the ice-storm hacks. This week has been good, unles you're a tree....

 

[Al Smith]

Ironic,as it is,due to the wide spread damage ,it's been the saving grace for some of the tree services in the area.One gent,that I help with his mechanical stuff,has been getting around 75 to 90 calls per day.He says it will be 2 or 3 months before the mess is cleared .I will try and take a few pictures tomorrow,of the area.I can remember 4 or 5 big ice storms,in my 56 yrs on this earth.This is the worst.It looks like ole Al,is going to be in the trees,this spring[my own trees],it's too dang nasty out now.I heard at work,today,of guys driving around,with their little saws[not pros],and making a small fortune just clearing the limbs etc,from peoples driveways,porches etc.,not even hauling the stuff away.The last several days,a generator could not be found,in this one horse town,for sale.I would suspect that chainsaws are a hot item also,hmm. :angel:

 

[bottlefed89]

Well, we had as much Ice, but it doesn't sound like as much damage. The ice storm we had in 02 kinda took out a lot of the weeklings. Ours wasn't as bad as they'd predicted. Still enough to make some $$ though. I think I may put a ad in a few small local papers over the next few weeks, and see if bus. doesn't keep going at a decent rate.
greg

 

[shalenkur]

the worst is in wichita

imagine this to every tree in the city . . . the worst ice storm ever

over 60,000 without power . . .


wish I knew how to climb but plenty of work on the ground. I saw a tree crew here from minnesota . . .

 

[MasterBlaster]

WoW!

 

[Stumper]

Ugh!

 

[Chucky]

Wow, Al, good luck with that mess. Good thing you're handy and a tinkerer, having a generator and all. Ice storms are even worse than wind storms, IMHO. Back in '98, northern New York and southern Canada had a real bad, bad one. My uncle, who was still living up there, was without power for two weeks, and he lived in town. It took up to three months for some who lived in outlying areas to have their power restored. I worked for a local company for a while in clearance (I'm EHAP qualified), and it was nasty. The power clearance company (union-scale) folks were making 3X what we made.

A local drug dealer hired a local truck driver, sent him to the NYC area and bought a load of generators and sold them at cost to farmers and actually gave many of them away to the needy. This is just one of the things you never see in the newspaper.

 

[MasterBlaster]

A local drug dealer hired a local truck driver, sent him to the NYC area and bought a load of generators and sold them at cost to farmers and actually gave many of them away to the needy. This is just one of the things you never see in the newspaper.

Now that's something you don't hear everyday.

 

[Chucky]

Aye, Butch. (And I forgot to post the link.)

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/icestorm.html

 

[bottlefed89]

Yeah, today was the first time I've really climbed in much ice. it was pretty tricky getting use to not having a footing on the tree. I got use to just staying on the rope, too easy to slip putting any weight on most of the trees, but rope placement was defenitely more critical than normal. I only have one that I had to tell I'd come back. I got everything that was dangerous, but I'm gonna have to go back to clean up the breaks when I can get in the tree a little better. It's supposed to warm up tomorrow, that'll be a mess too. I hope calls keep coming with folks that were waiting for the rush to be over, most of the big stuff is off the ground around us. They are calling for a wintery storm here begining next wednesday, who knows what that may bring...
greg

 

[wct4life]

It looks like ole Al,is going to be in the trees,this spring

Hey Al, I'll give you a hand if you need it after I get established this spring.

And now a storm story....

I was talking to my brother earlier today about the weather. (he lives in north central Ohio) He told me that on his way to work this morning he drove through a tree. The road has a sharp bend and you can't see that far ahead. Low and behold by the time that he saw it in the road, it was to late. Ironically, his car only suffered a broken mirror, and the ice that he didn't scrape off acted as a protective layer.

 

[canguy21]

leadarrow, that is beautiful ice sculpture from Mother Nature. Sure glad we dont see ice storms like that but I remember them in southern Ontario when I visited my grandparents

 

[Al Smith]

A few more pictures

Here are a few more pictures.Actually it wasn't as bad as I thought,after driving around a bit,but bad enough.The saving grace,was no wind with the ice.The large oaks,hickorys,ash,and mature sugar maple,survived pretty well.The softer,and weaker silver maples didn't do so well.One picture,however,shows a large oak that is uprooted,most likely from an unhealthy root system.