Snow and power outages still a problem for anyone?

I've been out of the picture since Thursday evening as we had an ice storm here in Greensboro, NC. The trees were covered when I woke Friday AM. Power, internet and phone went off at 7:30am. I went to listen to the radio in the pickup under the carport. My cell wouldn't let me call to check on my parents--said no service sometimes and emergency calls only at others. But my Mom managed to call me--go figure. She asked if my trees survived and I said yes followed by a crack, crack, crack and crash of 3 beech limbs outside the carport. Ok, so I now have 3 down. But from about 8 till 10am it was like gunshots ringing out all over. One hit the ground in front the carport and the butt end ended up leaning against the roof of the carport in front the truck. A few smaller ones landed on top the carport. By noon the driveway was covered and I was unable to leave. I got out Saturday morning and there were literally miles of power lines on the ground going down the roads in some places. Gaps had been cut through the trees across the roads just big enough to drive through and you just had to watch for oncoming cars before using the gap. In a couple places power lines created a complete blockage. It was amazing, many trees were uprooted, others split in half and of course plenty of broken limbs. Limbs and branches all crunched up in the road from people driving over them etc. Some folks tried to get hotel rooms but had trouble finding them. I went for a hot meal at a restaurant, most were packed. In town with fewer trees the power situation was much better. Going down a road by a couple hotels, it was like a sea of bucket trucks with their buckets up in the air where the crews were staying the night. Saturday afternoon I witnessed DOT pushing trees off the road with a snowplow on the front of a dump truck! Of course he was doing so slowly like you'd use a front blade on a tractor--not fast like snow but it still struck me as odd. Luckily, except for tree damage I didn't sustain much. I need to straighten some trim on my carport and some of the roof is bent a bit but no punctures. My parents and I have been shuttling a generator from their house to mine allowing fridges/freezers to have some run time and for us to keep a bit of water in the pump tanks for washing hands. Heats been via gas fireplaces, kero heaters and blankets but surprisingly it hasn't been that cold--it hit 70 today!--which means the yard is very muddy. So long story short we both got power back this evening. Thanks to an Asplundh crew from Western NC and a Utility crew from Sumter, SC. As of right now Duke Energy is showing 1173 outages remaining in Guilford County affecting 7713 customers.

Winter is returning to NY, after a little break, Wed. AM with a vengeance- heavy snow, wind, and by Thur. below 0 wind chills.

I've had a small reminder of what so many were or are going through lately. Gotta go continue removing limbs.

Chris, I live between Asheboro and Seagrove. The bullet missed us this time. Friday morning about 3:00 AM I was at the kitchen window and saw a flash of light, I knew it was from a power line, but couldn't get a bearing on it, but about two hours later, the power went off. We were only without power for about three hours, and it was restored. Those boys at Randolph Electric Membership are really on the ball. Asheboro itself was hit pretty hard, and I guess all the way to Greensboro. My son in law works near the airport and they closed about noon because the power was off. Went through a bad ice storm here in early '02, lost a lot of tree limbs, lost a truck to a large tree limb. I'm just thankful we didn't get hit again.

Sorry for your troubles Chris, but look at it this way- we did 15 days in sub ZERO F with no power covering several counties and parts of Ontario and Quebec in 98. A good ice storm weeds out the weak!