| Ice Storm 2009: Days 4-6 : The Guard Arrives |
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| February 9, 2009 |
Thursday, January 29th- Saturday, January 31st:  
Broken poles, broken transformers, broken lines, broken trees. Think of the scene from Siberia when all the trees were blown down in the early 1900s by some unknown force. The damage was everywhere.
It was estimated that every tree in Hickman County was damaged. We heard that Fulton County lost 80% of its power poles. We wondered where there were enough poles to replace what we had lost.
The Kentucky National Guard came to town, bringing their own gas (smart of them -our stations weren't up yet). They went door to door and offered assistance. They cleared brush and patrolled our neighborhoods. Strange as it might sound, the arrival of the National Guard lightened our hearts and brought hope that we would soon be getting back to normal.
We would have gas stations by Friday and power crews all over the area by the weekend. Utility crews came from all over the country to help out. Their only request - don't stop us working by asking us how long it will take to get the power back on. 
It was so very cold those days - temps in the teens at night. My standard of warmth in our house - could I see my exhaled breath? We dressed in layers and piled blankets on the beds at night. During the day, we got out of the house and went somewhere, anywhere, it was warm.
For heating, wood stoves, fireplaces, gas stoves, ventless kerosene heaters, generators were some of the solutions to staying warm. I spent one night at the shelter before we got a heater.
Our ad hoc emergency warming shelter set up in the Young Center of the First Methodist Church was up and running. We made contact with the Red Cross on our way to becoming an official shelter.
Food was coming in from generous givers. We were blessed in our UK county extension agent, Melissa Goodman, who, on the first day, agreed to take over meal planning, kitchen organizing and nutritional requirements. She all but moved in, saying "this is my job."
She went well above and beyond her paycheck. Her kitchen served over 1000 meals during the storm- and without working ovens or stove tops. Local churches signed up to supply meals and brought in volunteers with electric frying pans, skillets, crock pots - whatever they needed to put hot meals on the table.
Ivan stayed at home with the kittens on Thursday night and came very close to freezing to death. He recounted his night to Jennifer Horbelt of Channel 6 when she brought a film crew to the shelter.
 WPSD Channel 6
We were on our way back - still without power and still cold, but who could be gloomy with the bright blue sky and the sun shining overhead?
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