Another Icemagedon?

Ice is bad. All ice is bad. There is no such thing as good ice. Let me be explicitly clear: ICE is a killer.

That is not up for debate.

So when our favorite local celebrity weatherman began telling us to prepare for an ice storm five days in advance, we listened.

A Previous “Icemagedon”

I’ve experilenced a horrible ice storm before. In 2013, when I was living in Texas, I found myself in “Icemagedon.” I was unable to leave my apartment for several days. During that time, my emergency back up stash of Fludrocortisone saved me from running out of a critical medication when the roads were impassible.

Thirteen years later, and with the threat of another apocalyptic sized storm looming, I was determined to not repeat the same mistakes.

The pilot and I were not going to panic.

But we were going to prepare.

How to Mitigate Ice

Y’all, in this tumultuous climate in the USA, community is essential. Find your tribe. Build up your in person network. Be purposeful about your “IRL” connections. Because ICE kills.

One of the first things my pilot and I did was talk through several scenarios. How would we handle a prolonged power outage? Do we know where the battery operated lanterns are? What is our backup source of heat? Do we have proper food? What are the thresholds for determining if the pilot can safely get to work? Do I have all of my critical medication? Are my chronic diseases stable? How are our friends doing?

By calmly and factually discussing these things before hand, we came up with a clear plan of action.

Our Plans

• Medication: I purposefully refilled my daily pill container a few days before the storm to make sure I had enough prescription medications to last me. I did not want to repeat the panic from the 2013 Icemagedon.
• IV Hydration: I scheduled a cash pay IV Saline fill-up before the storm hit, knowing that barometric pressure changes still sometimes affect me and that my ability to access emergency medical services would be reduced. This was especially prudent as I started dealing with an annoying sinus infection about a day before Winter Storm Fern was forecasted to land.
• Heating the House: Our home has a natural gas furnace and solar panels with a batter backup. Due to this combination, we have found it cheaper to rely on oil filled space heaters than the gas furnace. However, we were preparing for a prolonged power outage. As such, we turned off the space heaters and turned up the furnace to extend the amount of time our home could run on the battery.
• Reducing Ice Accumulation: We tried to buy ice melt, but by the time we began hunting for it the stores were already sold out. We did find a DIY de-icer recipe online that used ingredients that we already had. We also had purchased a leaf blower in advance, because we have found that’s one of the most effective ways to clear ice from our ever shaded driveway.
• Community Check In: We purposefully touched base with our community. Some of our friends still live in our former apartment complex, which is notorious for constantly losing power. We volunteered our home in advance in case of a prolonged power outage, due to our access to solar panels.

Then, we waited.

The Storm

My pilot and I watched and discussed together every vlog update from our famous local weatherman. While my pilot is no weatherman, his job does require him to have strong working knowledge of current weather systems and trends. My pilot predicted that the storm would move slower than expected and hit us later.

He was correct in his predictions.

Originally, the storm was supposed to hit us around Saturday at dinner time. Then it was pushed back to Saturday evening. And then overnight Saturday into Sunday. Next thing it was going to be early Sunday morning. Then Sunday afternoon.

Our house got hit with sleet around 5:00PM on Sunday, while my pilot was at work. One of the most difficult things about forecasting this storm in particular was the fact that no one knew what the “wintery mix” would look like. Our options were snow, sleet, or freezing rain.

Snow was considered the “best case scenario.” Everyone in the region was rooting for snow. Freezing rain represent the “worst case scenario.” That is when the precipitation falls as liquid rain, but due to the temperature at the surface of the object, the liquid freezes to ice upon contact. This is the most damaging.

Sleet is the “happy middle ground.” Yes, it makes the roads more dangerous. But, it is far from the great destroyer of power lines. That title belongs to freezing rain. The severity of damage would be directly correlated to the amount of sleet we would receive. The more sleet, the less damage.

Ice is the big killer.

We got mostly sleet.

The apocalyptic ice storm that was predicted for my area did not materialize (Seriously y’all, at one point they were forecasting up to 1″ of ice). We never lost power. We just had to deal with the bitter cold. And we are still dealing with the bitter cold.

Do I regret our prep?

Our community was ready for the storm. I was mentally prepared for the power grid to be shut down for multiple days and for me to manage the home while my pilot played clean up duty getting passengers to their desired locations.

And that didn’t happen. Well, except for the pilot flying. He was able to get to work and he was one of the people trying to get passengers to their destinations amidst the multiple airport meltdowns. But (and this is very important), I do not regret our prep. Sure, our plans were not fully executed this time. However, they are agreed upon and they are ready for the next time SHTF (as the cool kids like to say).

Just because ice didn’t catastrophically destroy us this time does not mean that the threat is gone. They are already monitoring a potential secondary winter storm coming soon. And the storm did cause widespread damage. We were fortunate to miss the brunt of its wrath.

My Challenge to You

Discuss your emergency plan before the emergency. What is your Plan Contingency? Who is your community?

Let us look at Minnesota. Minnesota reminds us of the importance of community, of neighbors protecting neighbors, of working together. Do you know your neighbors? How is your “IRL” support? Is there a local organization (hobby meet-up, special interest group, religious organization) that you can join to start laying the foundation for purposeful in person friendships? COVID drastically cut back on in-person community gatherings. Let us invest in bringing them back. And these investments take time.

The threat of ice remains ever present.

I would like for all of us to remain Clearly Alive.