We went to bed last night with power, but at 1:30 in the morning I awoke to silence, the power was off again. Getting back to sleep took awhile because of the sound of falling stuff. There was the light crack and rattle of bushes covered in ice falling over and then there was the groan followed by a loud crack as tree limbs plummeted to the ground. A couple of times the tree limb’s progress to earth were interrupted by our roof with a loud thud and a rumble, rumble as they rolled off.
So far we have escaped with only minor damage considering the size of the limbs falling. In the second picture the dark line above the windows in the sided area is from where a limb hit the gutter on the way down and bent it. In the third picture on the left side is a pile of branches that landed on our wire fence between yards, crushing it in the middle. And the branch laying on the ground in front of the garbage can dragged its end down along the wall in that area and broke a bunch a pieces of siding on its fall.
By late morning we were getting cold, the temperature in the house read 57, we picked up our friend Joan who was in the same situation and slowly drove around Aiken looking for something open. There were a few places that looked open but they weren’t really, just employees inside stranded from getting to their homes from the last shift. We were a half hour early for the Golden Corral being opened, but by the time it did it would have been over run by all the folks out cruising like us. We went back to Joan’s house where she packed a bag, then to our house were we did the same and I got on US78 and headed west.
We finally got our hot lunch in Branchville, SC at a Chinese restaurant. They didn’t have electricity, but their gas burners were going and the three of us each had an egg roll and split some fried rice and chicken and broccoli. The little hole in the wall was unheated and the steam was rising off the food as we ate, but the three of us agreed it was the best Chinese food we had ever had. It really wasn’t until we hit I-95 about 20 miles later that the trees painted white with a coating of ice and sagging started to thin out.
We tried a couple of hotels at the first two exits but we were not the only one’s escaping the ice and they were already filled. The Emperor passed the 39,000 mile mark somewhere on I-95 south on the way to our final destination, a HIE in Hardeeville, SC.
Lucky you! We found our bit of civilization at Macs with wifi today. Power still out. Insurance adjuster came yesterday to look at our newly air conditioned den courtesy of Mother Nature. We too thought of finding a room, but three dogs…at least we’ve managed to re supply with propane and kerosene so we won’t freeze. It was 47 in our kitchen, bedroom, den combo room on Thurs.. Please don’t bring up 10 years ago as it is bad luck.
Ps: you missed the earthquake last night.