Cleaning up/wind storm

Trucks and repairpeople from all over the East descended upon Louisville, Kentuckiana, and Kentucky as a whole last month, in the wake of the ice storm. During several walks with Frisco while I was at work, Stephanie got a chance to talk with repairpeople from Progress, an electric utility company out of North Carolina. She heard about the arrangements that got them here and how they were organizing the repairs. By the time I got my camera out the Progress folks were starting to leave, and there were more folks - at least in St. Matthews - from Georgia Power.

Most people in Louisville have gotten their power back. Some people going up to nine days without it. The last person I heard of was Libby at the dentist's office whose family got theirs back a week later. I think I've mentioned that several of my coworkers lost power for almost that long and one stayed every night with her cats through six nights - five with 40 degree temperatures inside the house. Across the state, things have been very bad. In fact, Ike and the ice storm have been the two worst natural disasters in Kentucky history, we're told. Many people in Paducah and rural counties still don't have their power. In Leitchfield, a town near the church camp we've had retreats at twice and through which we drove from Whitesville two years ago, almost everyone lost their power. Across the state 30 people died from the ice storm. Some people died of hypothermia, and others in storm-related fires. The most common cause of death seems to be carbon monoxide poisoning, from charcoal grill fires, kerosene heaters, and especially generators (many put in error inside), as well as one in a car and another death when an ambulance couldn't get through because of ice a tree covered roads. KY's governor has persuaded the Obama administration to declare KY a major disaster area. In the wake of all of this - as well as Ike - and then melting snow and rain that made some already stressed trees more prone to limb loss or collapse - a wind storm was forecast and has been here for the past eight hours. It sounds like a train. I drove home and walked Frisco at mid-afternoon and - despite the sun - it was already blustering up. It was deceptive with the sun - which soon thereafter was gone - in that the wind was blowing hard. Below the light at Zorn and I-71 sways in the wind.

Already we'd canceled Children's Fellowship for the third week in a row (ironically - after it'd been going not great earlier in January) - as well as - for the second time in three weeks - monthly church meetings. My former turtlesitter and colleague Ida called on her cell phone before 6 p.m. to say her power had gone out. More trees and limbs came down and more power went out. The news has broadcast that several power lines fell across a major road in town as well as transformers blew. They said that we are now up to 37,000 homes without power in just Louisville. My picture - from I-64 along the Ohio River - captured some of the impressive sky but not the river - and all of its churned up waves - so well. I drove over the Germantown to pick up Vincent in the wind, and I can still hear late in the evening. Let's hope the damage is not too bad and there is no more loss of life as folks continue to try to clean up from earlier weather. Presbyterian volunteers are fanning out from a nearby Presbyterian church, although I may continue to focus on doing people's taxes (as well as church, work, and family) with my spare time.

-- Perry