Posted on 02/03/2009 4:53:59 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – As Sgt. Michael Franks pulled up to a shack resting among the ice-coated limbs of a forest in northeast Arkansas, he said he couldn't believe that anyone was living on the property
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
God Bless Our Troops!
I thought this story would be about a person who survived an ice storm 92 years ago...
I thought they found another intact “ice man”.
THanks for posting - I needed some good news today.
What on earth would we do without them? The kind of caring they show just makes my heart swell with pride.
America’s finest.
The ice storm victims are not whining like the Katrina victims.
They are not getting much attention either !
God Bless the Guard Troops.
They would get plenty if Bush was still President.
According to one of the dispatchers the same thing is going on in Kentucky.
I guess this is Bush's fault also.
I can't understand why the media hasn't reported this yet./Sarcasm
I've wondered about this. I've combed through articles looking for anyone to comment on something FEMA has actually done for anyone. I've heard FEMA sent stuff, I've heard FEMA was supposed to be there Friday. I've read that FEMA has 13 camps open in KY.
No one has reported supplies being handed out, they've reported supplies being shared with neighbors or bought. If FEMA were doing great, they'd be trumpeting it from the rooftops.
Do you have an article?
Hey, Everyone,
Paul R. here, reporting from W. KY:
Our power*, phone and DSL came back on about an hour ago. It’s a real mess here. Not to mention nice & cold (wind chills below zero, tonight, says NWS) so getting the power back on was good timing for us. A lot of people are a lot worse off / may not have power for weeks, we hear. Many local shelters are full or nearly so. Tree limbs and lines are down everywhere. We have 2 sizeable limbs hanging about 30 ft. above our house, and 2 more over our metal building. That plus limbs down on the building and a hole punched in the roof in one spot. The neighbors to our south are in better shape, but they cleared out when it became apparent power would be off several days. To the North - well, I’ll have to try to post a pic when I have time: Really BIG limbs are on their house. Our neighbor to the South called last week Tuesday night “a damn war zone out there”. No kidding: The pops, cracks, crashes and thumps were constant. It’s amazing how big a crash even a medium size branch that weighs several times what it should, can make, when it comes down from 60 ft. or more... And the big ones — several times our house shook, even though nothing big hit our house. We have close to 100 “significant” size trees (trunks 3” dia. or more), and so far I’ve found only one medium size tree and a few small ones with only minor damage. All the other mediums and all the bigs (a couple dozen oaks and hickories 50-60 ft. or taller) have major damage (tops out on almost all, large branches broken or down on all.) Phone and Internet have been down since last week Tuesday; cell phone service very spotty until today; some towns were without water for a few days. Very few stores, gasoline stations, etc., were open the 1st few days, and even then, purchases were limited to cash, and in the case of the gas stations, limited to (typically) $20 or less. Probably 95% of local gas stations simply couldn’t pump gas (no power.) One local “Super Wal-Mart” was letting in 25 customers at a time, by last Thursday, cash only (all credit card readers down across the area) for purchases of essentials only. The other one was closed for 3 days, so far as I can tell. The manager of the 1st was an important figure at the 1st few local emergency services meetings (right up there with the police chief, sheriff, Red Cross head, and reps from local hospitals, etc., as well as our “just got on the job” new State Rep. Somebody (State Police??) were saying at one of these meetings that they literally commandeered a propane truck for their own usage, at one point.)
We were fairly well prepared — bathtub full of water, vehicles gassed up, 15 gal. each of kerosene and gasoline in cans, cooked up food in advance, 4 extra propane cylinders for the camping stove set aside, 10 gal. of drinking water on hand, a pile of batteries charged, cordless tool batteries charged, LED flashlights and LED “headworn” flashlight at the ready, extension cords checked, bills paid in advance, plenty candles (including several of the BIG ones) set aside, etc... and still, it’s not been an easy week, even though we had partial power (long story), part of the time.
The situation is improving - I’d guess at least half of our area now has power, though some counties are still mostly “out”. Cleanup is gonna take a while...
*Oops, I forgot to explain: We had partial power to part of our house - it comes in on 2 different meters that hook up to different lines passing by our house. One line has gone on and off, or perhaps I should say off and on, repeatedly, since last week, Tuesday evening. The other has been 100% down for a week. Tonight is the first time both have been up. I’d say we are very lucky, compared to most people in rural areas, here.
No I don't. That was my point. There isn't anything in any of the media, local or national. The trailers are/were (not sure if they're still there)in plain view in the front parking lot of the sheriff's office. The dispatchers comment was first hand.
I understand. Maybe as more power comes on and people get settled, we'll hear more first-hand stories.
FEMA is in KY, essentially providing support to local and state agencies we are told. One FEMA guy was on a local radio station yesterday, basically outlining that. I haven’t heard / read about too many gripes with FEMA. A few people (including a couple local officials) are not too happy with the KY State agencies, but, overall, considering the situation, and that it’s hard to have 20/20 foresight, I can’t damn them much...
A story going around is that FEMA will reimburse people if they have a contractor come in and do clean up, repairs, etc., but the FEMA guy said that is NOT the case.
On the other hand, since our insurance company is not interested in damage control (or is it damnage control?), or prevention of imminent damage, we are on our own when it comes to branches partially broken off 40-60 ft. up, and just waiting to come down on our house and my metal building. (The insurance people will only pay up AFTER the branch comes down and crunches your roof / puts a hole in it.) Right now, we just don’t have the money (after everything else) to pay a tree service for this much work, so it’s pretty heartbreaking to realize that financially, the best bet is to just let the house & building get whacked some more (the building already has a hole in the roof where a branch punched through.) You all don’t want to hear the words I’d describe our insurance company with.
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