Thought you might enjoy a short account of a relatively rare weather event.
It is said to be a scourge of airmen, but I saw its effects from the ground.
The weather forecast called for freezing rain.
With temperatures near 0 degC a mix of rain with some pellets fell.
Nothing out of the way so far. But the rain soon filled trees with
icicles, and a glassy coat, so that a pencil thick twig became a one
inch diameter rod of clear glass.
Within minutes, tree branches started crackling and falling in every
city street (and across numerous counties of SW Oklahoma.) Power
lines were pulled down by these impacts, but more strangely, rows of
power poles fell to the ground, seven and eight at a time under the ice
load with just a modest cross wind under 15 kts.
The city power faltered and came back until Thursday afternoon, then the
town and surroundings fell quiet and dark as the power distribution
network (pole) towers also fell.
People with generators hooked them up. Gasoline and diesel to replenish
them was a problem - with no power at gas stations. The first supplier
within ten miles of me started selling into jerry-cans from a DC
electric gas pump dipped in his fuel station tank. The pump was driven
from his idling diesel truck battery.
Others followed hours and days later with generator power, serving half
mile lines of waiting cars. A free enterprise trade sprang up in two
days with generator sets sold from delivery trucks. A hardware store was
escorting customers into its dark sales shelves with hand written sales
tallies.
Cash and checks were acceptable currency.
The current estimates suggest several thousand power lines and power
poles down and broken. Stores are functioning with generators, and
industrial generators are supporting water supplies, sewage pumps.
The power lines feeding domestic cables are often sited in back allies
intended for trash removal etc. The electrical utility supervision is
observing that house holders who have extended their garden fences into
the alley access, or even worse, have closed off access on one side
with fences and buildings,
will pay for it in reduced access by heavy post hole diggers and cherry
pickers....
[Five days, and counting...]