FHS Reminiscing

FHS Reminiscing
[ FHS Reminiscing ]

Ice

Posted by Sue’62 on January 25, 2026, 7:29 pm

Tell us how it is at your home. We have been without power since 8 o’clock last night. Ice everywhere. How about you all?

Re: Ice

Posted by Panzey '62 on January 26, 2026, 11:00 am, in reply to "Ice"

We are mostly iced/snowed in here in middle Tennessee. Thankful that my house still has power. Praying for everyone's safety during the aftermath of this storm.

Re: Ice

Posted by Kaye ‘63 on January 27, 2026, 1:25 pm, in reply to "Re: Ice"

We have not seen it this bad since we lived in Oklahoma. We live just a few miles north of the MS state line, so we got everything North MS did. We are not as bad as Oxford, though, which is just terrible. We do still have power and water but housebound due to an accumulation of 4-5 in of layers of pure snow, then pure sleet, topped off with a thick layer of ice. But the really bad part….the Temperatures!! Low single digits since Saturday. We are not very optimistic going forward either. There has been no melting of anything. Even though we are told temps will moderate in the next few days, we are expecting another Arctic blast which will preserve most of what we have on the ground now. Our daughter in Brentwood (Nashville) lost power early Sunday morning. After three days of trying to stay warm with a gas fireplace and very little internet service to stay in touch with updates, she is moving with her little dog Mia to a Hilton near Franklin.
Sue and Panzey, I’m glad you started this thread. I’d like to hear from others, too. I did not see it til now because I’m trying to keep full batteries just in case we do lose power as MLGW is trying to work with outages. Lots to think about but we do have plenty of food water just in case. Sometimes unexpected infrastructure emergencies happen after the original hit. Yep. Been there; done that.

Re: Ice

Posted by Lu Ann Gould’73 on January 27, 2026, 4:07 pm, in reply to "Re: Ice"

I am so sorry that so many of you have ice, snow and power outages. In Forest and Morton we missed the ice part. We never lost power but it has been really cold. The sun is shining today and I pray this helps many towns. Yes Oxford was hit really bad. Our granddaughter, Manning drove home to Madison Thursday because she had to take the MCAT’s on Friday in Jackson. Needless to say she is still at home. She can’t get back to Oxford. School there is out until Monday. I don’t know if Oxford will have all its power outages fixed by then. With the cold blast coming in for this weekend, it may be a few days longer before Oxford gets on its feet. Praying for everyone!

Re: Ice

Posted by Lynda Sue on February 8, 2026, 2:07 pm, in reply to "Re: Ice"

We were without power for 8 days. We’d never used a propane or kerosene heater but we learned!! You can learn a lot on you tube!!
39 degrees and low 40’s in our house in the mornings. We’d heat the house during the day and leave to spend the night with friends each night. A huge tree came within 6 inches of shattering the windows across the back of the house and others falling all around us. I think a total of 7 trees fell. The good news was that no pipes burst, no trees fell on the house, we were still alive and well and had help from friends. We’re still waiting on TV and Internet services.

Re: Ice

Posted by Panzey '62 on February 9, 2026, 7:59 am, in reply to "Re: Ice"

Lynda Sue and Kaye, I'm glad your situations weren't combined so that you had no power but you also couldn't get out of the house! It's good to hear that things are beginning to normalize. This was a doozy of a storm.

Re: Ice

Posted by Kaye ‘63 on February 9, 2026, 3:43 pm, in reply to "Re: Ice"

I think today has finished most of the ice. Schools reopened for the first time in two weeks. We still have large chunks of ice hanging around but it’s so much better. There are some places just a few miles to our south, in MS, that are still without power or water. I hope we don’t have another storm like this anytime soon.

Re: Ice

Posted by Kaye ‘63 on February 8, 2026, 7:45 pm, in reply to "Re: Ice"

Oh Linda …..I’m soooo sorry! 8 days! Did your snow/ice last that long? That was our main problem. We were literally iced in and are just now getting back out. Last night we had a “glacier” fall off the roof about midnight. It was one of several. It sounded like a BOMB and did hit the area in back where the A/C compressor lives. I guess we have to wait til spring to see if it’s damaged. Earlier a snow bomb fell on the patio side and knocked a blob of paint off the brick in addition to breaking the arm of a chair. That is minor compared to 8 days of no power!

Re: Ice

Posted by Lynda on February 18, 2026, 8:32 pm, in reply to "Re: Ice"

Kaye, the ice was mainly in the trees and on power and utility lines. The roads were okay. Our biggest problem was trees, limbs, power poles falling. We have about 85 trees on and around our lot. The cracking of the limbs and falling of the trees were both eerie sounds especially at night. I kept wondering when one was coming through the roof. You’d better believe that trees are being cut now all around Pontotoc!!

Re: Ice

Posted by Bob 68 on February 10, 2026, 8:46 am, in reply to "Re: Ice"

In Fort Worth (Richland Hills) TX we were pretty much homebound for almost a week but never lost power. We were part of the storm in 2021 where people died because the power grid could not stand up to the demand. Luckily we were able to spend a few nights with Lynda's son and family in their spare bedroom, us and 2 dogs. I bought a generator after the fact in 2021; it has sat in the garage since then, with a tank of gas with gas conditioner. Amazingly it started right up so I got everything situated anticipating a repeat of 2021 but as I mentioned we never lost power. The only ones who were without power this time as far as I know were due to lines being down because of tree limbs and/or ice. Today we are forecast for 74 degrees. But, February is not over.

Re: Ice

Posted by Lynda Sue on February 18, 2026, 8:21 pm, in reply to "Re: Ice"

Glad that y’all didn’t lose power, Bob.Sounds as if you were prepared, though, if you had. I think we’re ready to purchase a generator plus put in some type of gas heater.

Re: Ice

Posted by Meg ‘68 on February 19, 2026, 11:45 am, in reply to "Re: Ice"

We have gas fire logs. So nice just click the remote and they come on! Highly recommend them!

Re: Ice

Posted by Kaye ‘63 on February 19, 2026, 2:08 pm, in reply to "Re: Ice"

Same here, Meg. They are wonderful. That is exactly what kept our Nashville daughter going while her power was out for three days.
Of course you do have to have gas flowing. We learned something that many of you might already know, but we did not. Outside by your gas meter is a separate meter looking thing called a regulator. If snow/ice gets deep enough to cover it, or if it gets enough freezing rain to encase it…..it will stop the gas from flowing into your home. Your gas logs and other gas appliances will not work until it is cleared off. This did not happen to us during this recent storm but it did happen to us when we lived in OK. Several of our neighbors here found out the hard way three weeks ago. As long as the snow is fluffy, you can just brush it off with a broom. But if it is ICE….do not go out there and start trying to hack it off. You are dealing with part of a gas meter, so that’s a hard NO.
You can Google gas regulator to learn more and see what it looks like. But most of you might already know this; we learned the hard way. In the Deep South we didn’t have much experience with extreme winter storms until the last few years, so it never occurred to us.

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