Ice Storm (Day 3)

As the sun set on the third day of the ongoing disaster now known as the "Ice Storm of 2009" my family joined the thousands of other NWA residents without electricity. At 4 p.m. on Thursday melting ice falling from the trees on my circle drive caused a power transformer to arc and trip a nearly breaker, thus cutting our power for the evening. Of course I still had to go and shoot Arkansas' basketball game against Alabama in Fayetteville. When I returned home after midnight I found my wife and daughter huddled near the fireplace in the living room of home. Our house if 100% electric, so our only source of heat was from our fireplace. Let me tell you, a conventional fireplace is very inefficient at heating a basic room. I froze my butt off last night and caught very little sleep as I was continually waking to stoke the fire and add more wood. By morning we had only a few logs of dry wood left and I was fearful of the thought of having to go another night without power. As luck would have it, actually I think it was a prayer being answered, a Carroll Electric utility crew pulled into our circle a little after 9:00 a.m. and we had power within 20 minutes. I know we have been very lucky this week and I am grateful for it. After spending just one night without electricity it really puts into perspective what so many in my area have been enduring since late Monday and early Tuesday. I want to say I hope this nightmare ends soon, but I'm sure we'll be seeing the effects of the ice storm for several weeks to come.