The Ice Storm Blues
Local supermarkets emptied out in half a day. If you didn’t have it before the storm hit, you weren’t getting it.
I sit typing these words in my favorite writing chair in front of a roaring fire in the fireplace. Esoterically, that seems like a good thing. However, the ambient temperature in the house is about 39°F. We’re in the midst of a simply massive regional ice storm.
The circumstances have to be perfect to foment a proper ice storm, but they are wondrous to behold. This one began with chilly rain about 36 hours ago. As the temperature dropped, the rain kept coming. Eventually, physics conspired to nearly kill us all.
When the circumstances are perfect, the chilled liquid strikes trees, vehicles, and roofs and just kind of sticks there. While this generous coating of ice is undeniably gorgeous, that stuff is also incredibly nasty. In short order, ice-covered trees were exploding everywhere.
No kidding, the end result sounds like artillery. Standing on my back porch, I could hear giant trees snapping and crashing to the ground across my rural farm. Some of those trees fell across our driveway and the power line that feeds the house.
Not that it matters. Scuttlebutt is that the main transmission lines into the county are toast, too. That’s the reason my milk just sits out in the open in the pantry rather than in the fridge. For now, at least, the pantry is the colder space.
Ice storms are undeniably gorgeous, right up until you realize they are trying to kill you.
Human Nature
The threat of a decent natural disaster will ignite a veritable frenzy of activity in otherwise reasonable humans. Twelve hours after word of the pending ice storm hit Facebook, the only thing you could find at the local Kroger supermarket was lottery tickets and paper towels. Everything even remotely edible was gone. That’s actually pretty unsettling if you think about it.
Modern American society is sustained by rolling stock. Those ubiquitous 18-wheeler semi-trucks crisscross the country every single day, bringing the essentials of life to every little burg in America. However, that is such a tenuous thing. It doesn’t take much to stop those trucks. When the trucks stop rolling, stores empty out in a matter of hours. It behooves the responsible American to plan ahead.
Undeniably gorgeous but incredibly nasty.
Details
We’re fortunate to live way out in the middle of nowhere on our own land. I have an infinite supply of firewood. Forcing myself to go out and cut and split the stuff in warm weather can be a challenge. However, I always lay in a proper stockpile no later than December every year. That is coming in really handy right now.
The house is indeed cold, but keeping a fire roaring in the fireplace has taken the edge off. Our cooktop is gas-fired by design. From the looks of the surrounding forest, it could be a while before the power comes back on. Those amazing linemen are no doubt working like Trojans. However, this storm is bad. A quick glance up and down our rural road showed trees down as far as the eye can see. Many of them fell across power lines. Fixing that is going to take a while.
This particular ice storm took out all the electrical power in the county. It took weeks to make that right.
Necessities
I write for gun and survival magazines. You might reasonably expect I would be prepared for such stuff, and we are. However, it is indeed shocking how close we all are to a fairly feral existence. We are never more than one ice storm, hurricane, pandemic, or nuclear attack away from a pretty primitive existence.
Human beings need food, water, and shelter to stay alive. If you live in a modern all-electric house or apartment, heat for both comfort and cooking can be a challenge. A camp stove or gas barbecue grill will do in a pinch. Just be ever mindful of carbon monoxide poisoning. Don’t fire up a flame-driven stove or heater indoors without proper ventilation. A dear friend lost his grandparents to that several years back.
Canned foods are easily prepared on a gas stovetop, but they should be rotated. Mountain House freeze-dried food comes in big institutional cans and will last 25 years when stored in a cool, dry place. When properly prepared, that stuff actually tastes pretty good. I’m working through a big can of lasagna right now.
You can make drinkable water using standard household bleach at a ratio of eight drops of bleach per gallon of water. I have done that before. The end result drinks just fine, but tastes vaguely of bleach. A better idea is a camping water filter. These things are not expensive on Amazon and will provide plenty of water to get you and your family through any reasonable non-cataclysmic crisis. They also make you immune to boil water notices.
We filled the bathtubs with water in case our water supply is disrupted. We will use that to flush the toilets should our water lines freeze. The lows tomorrow are forecasted to be in the single digits. We shall see.
You will want some reliable sources of light. Flashlights are like guns. It’s a buyer’s market.
I can tell you from personal experience that there’s not a great deal to do in a dark, cold house between 530 dinnertime and 10 pm when you can go to bed. Abe Lincoln’s legendary bibliophilia notwithstanding, it’s pretty hard to read by candlelight. Thankfully, I topped off my laptop before the ice crashed the power grid, so I just banged out this survival column.
Survival in the Information Age usually isn’t necessarily difficult. Most of it is planning and mindset. Our comfortable modern lives are an unfortunate illusion. Chaos lurks just around the corner.
Postscript: We were without power for two weeks. Two people in my county died from the cold. Everybody now has their own unique ice story. Generators that were worth their weight in gold three weeks ago are going for pennies on the dollar on Facebook Marketplace today. Even those who had them struggled to keep their generators fueled for two weeks or more.
Sweat in peacetime saves blood in war. Luck favors the prepared. However, a proper ice storm is no joke.
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