STORM UPDATE II

Things seemed back to normal for us on Tuesday morning, so I left for work at the normal time. The roads were wet but no ice. The morning was uneventful except that school had been called off for the county. I was sitting in my office thinking about lunch when the lights went out and my computer went off. Seems the ice that had fallen during the night and landed on the trees was beginning to weigh them down and they started breaking --everywhere, evidently, across the state. Our phones were out because our phone system needs electricty to work. My cell phone was the only one there that worked. It seems that AT&T had some tower problems and their cell phones as well as some of their land lines were out of order. We knew that it would be a while before the power company got to us because there were so many ahead of us. The power was still off when we left. By Wednesday morning we had had a lot of rain overnight and they were predicting snow (1-3 inches). All schools were called off again in anticipation of the snow, but at the time I normally go to work there wasn't anything on the roads, so off I go (dedicated employee that I am). Well I get to work and turn on my computer (by the way, our power was back on)and my connection to Frankfort and my e-mail account were down --NO INTERNET!! My job is completely dependent on my computer, email and access to Emars (our whole accounting system). Then I remembered that sometimes when the power goes out we just need to reset the router, so I go and reset it -nothing happens. I stayed around for over an hour with nothing to do and then it started snowing at a pretty fast rate. Since I couldn't work and only 2 others had shown up I made the decision to go back home. The roads became snow covered quickly. It took a while, but I made it home safely. I only saw one fender on the way home. In hindsight, I should have stayed a little longer. The 1-3 inches ended up being maybe 1/2 inch. It had stopped snowing an hour after I got home and then the roads cleared quickly after that. From home I could check my work email and late in the afternoon we had an email from the governor's office saying that state offices could close at 11 AM. The other 2 people who showed up along with several others who came in late couldn't check their emails and ended up staying all day because they didn't get the governor's message. When I got to work this morning the internet was still down, so I went and reset the router and things worked fine all day. We've been very fortunate with having electricity. There are thousands here that don't have electricity and several Red Cross shelters have been set up across the area to provide a warm place for them. They're saying some will be without for 7-14 days. Camping World has been bringing in extra shipments of propane heaters, generators, etc. and people are buying whatever they can to keep themselves warm. They say this is the worst power outage that this area has ever seen.