Ice Storm Clean-up Day 3

Working to remove debris and restore electric and phone services
2/2/02

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Today, we were awakened by a very unusual sound. Since our children were staying at grandmother's house, we didn't expect the same pitter-patter of little feet, but that's what it sounded like. I went to the window to find a flurry of activity outside. The temperature had risen well above freezing and trees were beginning to let loose their ice reserves in sizeable chunks. Our roof was the recipient of thousands of falling ice chunks clattering like a sea of billiard balls down down to the ground below. Utility crews had also arrived in force. We had four electric trucks and one telephone truck on the block with men scattered between all of the yards. White hats bobbed up and down behind fences and around corners, most concentrating on transformers and breakers. For some reason, they didn't seem shocked at the 12-ton tree limb lying on our line, but rather ignored it altogether. The telephone man drug a box of line with him from house to house and simply wired houses directly on the ground. Our phone which _had_ been working has so far entangled the feet of four electrical workers and is doomed to be cut at any moment. Approximately 3 hours ago, a neighbor was told "30 minutes". Perhaps that was when they planned on flipping the first switch to see how bad the damage was. Aparantly there was quite a bit. The first attempt to restore power to the line resulted in filling 5-6 yards with smoke and seemingly fusing many component wiring parts together.

I therefore will need to go re-fuel the generator again.

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