Ice

As if God has a sense of humor beyond the platypuses, we were hit with a terrible ice storm. In fact not our worst, but certainly in the top five. What made it worse was it was wide spread across a fifty mile area including the valley and mountains. Normally we would have had snow from such an even, but we haven’t had enough real cold for snow and strangely little rain. So, add ice to the story. Of course thousands lost power. No power no pumping for gas. I had asked Rick if we had gas for our generators and he said “yes”. But apparently his idea of “have ice” was significantly different from mine. To his defense we never know how bad the ice might be, how wide spread or for how long the power would be out. We were out eleven days and Mom, Joanie, was out two whole weeks. We have generators and generally are good during a power outage. But the hwy way north was closed and there turned out to be no power south.

The search for gas and water. Because Joanie had no generator we had to find her sufficient supplies for a long haul. And because our Jerry can supply wasn’t sufficient for a long haul either Joanie and I ventured out to find her water, or at least containers for water and gas to fill five Jerry cans. Glad we did given how long we would require private generation. But Joanie and I discovered the problem was far more wide spread than we knew. First no gas or electricity in Molalla, or Canby, or Aurora or on the Hwy I5 truck stops. No power or gas in Woodburn. We found power at Kaiser, OR. It took a search to find a has station and when found a 45 min. wait to fill up. Then we went to target to find Joanie water and bought the last two cases. She also bought a car charger for her phone.

On our expedition we found a place for purchasing food and found people who were looking for hotel rooms to take a shower. Fortunately we weren’t ready to take such an action, yet.

Both Joanie and I have wood stoves and with enough water can flush toilets and wash with warm water. But I understand how much a warm shower can tempt one. Joanie did need to have her water jugs filled several times and just as we were about the rent a room at the B&B the power came on. It took an hour for the water to heat and we could all shower. Joanie would have to wait another two days for hot water! There must be a better way to help her prepare. Must think on this and have a plan by September.