Oh yes, I stayed far away from the line. The local power company has already been by. They disconnected the line, pulled it out from under the trees, fixed the power coupling to the house, and reconnected the line. So it's no longer a safety hazard. We've already had the broken branches cut down (90% of the tree), and are in the midst of chopping up the limbs.
Lots of folks without power. At the peak, 75% of my town of 20k was without power. Though today you can't go more than two or three blocks without seeing a power company truck or two. They are really working hard, even while more tree limbs fall. Kudos to AmerenIP. Still, even more lines down today. Looks like a warzone. While home at lunch I watched our neighbors tree lose a big limb right on top of their car. Ouch.
While at Home Depot buying chainsaw oil yesterday, I witnessed a group of people almost fighting over a truckload of generators.
Spooky stuff. Like something out of a movie.
Yeah, ice sucks. I love a good snow. I don't mind it at all. I just hate this ice! Luckily it's 34 degrees (F) out now and everything seems to be melting. According to the National Weather service, it looks like my area is mostly out of danger now. I feel for those folks further north and west of where we live that are getting hammered today, especially NE Missouri and Eastern Iowa, as well as big chunks of Kansas and Oklahoma.
I see that Quincy is still under an Ice Storm Warning until tomorrow with .1 to .4 of an inch of ice accumulation expected. I'd encourage anyone in the path of this system to go out now and get plenty of rock salt and whatever else you need (chainsaw oil, gasoline, food, etc) to prepare. Take this one seriously. 1/4 inch seemed to be the point at which many trees couldn't take it anymore, so get ready!
Good luck to everyone still fighting this mess!
On an audio related note... It's been fairly interesting to watch my Belkin PF60 power 'cleaner' work. It has a line voltage readout. You should see it fluxuate! I've seen it as high as 135V and as low as 105V. It's usually around 122-124V. That can't be good for equipment!
