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Since Patty had the kindness and decency to send the ice storm my way (thanks a lot! ), I figured it would be a good chance to grab some pics. It's about 3/4 over and no major power trouble or anything like that (on the plus side, my meteorology final for tonight was ironically canceled), so it looks like I dodged the bullet on this one. Then again, we're supposed to get another one Saturday, but what are you going to do, right?

Regrettably, the first casualty of the day was one of our Christmas Reindeer lawn ornaments. May he rest in piece.






My mother's prized Holly bush.


Our birch tree took a pretty bad beating. Not sure if it survived or not.


Some hawthorne tree berries.




Not even the bird feeders were safe.


That's the most recent one taken, about 15 minutes ago.


It actually mostly went north of where I am, so we didn't get it as bad as was forecasted. Haven't heard much from the upper parts of the state. Hope everything's alright up there.

If I get more on Saturday, I'll snap some more pics.

Anyone else got pics from the storm or past storms?

Jeez, that's nasty, though the pics came out nice, hehe. We didn't get anything over here in DE 'cept rain!

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Nice pics joe.....but way too familiar looking!
Sorry about that.....but that ice storm caused about as much damage as it could here, considering we were declared a National disaster area for the second year in a row! Over half a million are without electric. Last year our house was without electric for a week with below freezing temps..We had to desert it leaving all our dogs & cats & birds & fish behind.

Thankfully our house was spared this year! But I guarantee you by next winter we WILL have a wood burning stove or a generator!

We've gotten news reports of the storms over here.

Looks beautiful, and deadly at the same time

Thanks for the pics joe, don't stay out too long, no frozen french fries.


Hope Fish pattys area agets power back soon!


Send the weather this way ! *scowls at summer*

^_^

We got about 7-10 inches of snow out of it, and looking for another foot or so saturday through monday. Where you at jojo?

Around Harrisburg. We're supposed to get a couple inches of snow/sleet and another half-inch of ice or so Saturday into Sunday.

Sounds like I'll be out with the camera again.

Joe, those are some amazing photos. the holly image is terrific, mind if i save and re-use?
Also, ive never known ice to knock over deer!

Go for it, James. I like the holly image too, although I don't like the big fuzzy branch in the bottom left. The one right above I'm really happy with, but I wish I had gotten the whole bush in the frame. Oh well. I don't do photography often as I should.

And, for the record, the birch is fine. At least until tomorrow.

I got 8 inches of snow up here in michigan since late last night and its supposed to run threw 7pm sunday. I heard about that ice. Nasty stuff.

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

Well, the storm last night and today was a bit worse that the one on Thursday. Again, though, we missed the heaviest stuff. We got a fair bit of ice but no snow, so that's good.

First thing is first: reindeer update. Unfortunately, he was, yet again, struck down in his prime.


We lost a fair bit of our hawthorne tree.




The birch was again owned.




Back by popular demand: the holly bush.


I don't know what it is about pine trees coated in ice, but I really like the look of it.


This one is a favorite.


These were literally the last leaves on the tree. I like this one, too.


Even the grass was crunchy.


And the obligatory close-up. I don't know why, but my camera can't macro to save its life.


The storm's about over now. It's above freezing and drizzling, so the ice is melting pretty fast.

We made it through just fine. There were a few power outages, but none more than half an hour.

Very nice pictures & they're quite interesting & Cold.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

I like the look of everything after an ice storm... the trees and everything look candy-coated

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Thanks joe

Thanks for making me miss winter even more : .


Since I used to be just south of joe, ice was mostly what we got...or freezing rain, or rain that froze. Always was so pretty .

Have you had the reindeer checked for narcolepcy?


^_^

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. After some brief outages, the power finally died about 12:30 yesterday and stayed off for good. 18 hours later and I'm camped out in a hotel typing this at 6 in the morning. We're supposed to get our power back around 6 PM tomorrow, but I've also heard estimates of it being as late as Wednesday night. I would have toughed it out at home, but no power = no water from the well. I can deal with the cold inside the house no problem, but I'm not going to go outside in the middle of the night to crap under a tree in sub-freezing temperatures. After the storm, we had some pretty decent winds (gusts up around ~50 MPH) and, already heavy with ice, the power lines just started snapping all over the place. Sustained winds are still 25-30, so it wouldn't surprise me if more people lost it today.

When I finally left my house about 6:30 yesterday, the big tank temp had already dropped about 12 degrees. I didn't even want to look at the 10 gallon. As the house only got colder overnight...well, let's just say I'm not expecting good things when I get home. The WCMMs could survive temps like that, but with it dropping that fast? I'm not so sure. At least I got the gecko out. He's living high and mighty at my girlfriend's house, or at least as much as he can in a much smaller enclosure. I'll probably be moving over his main tank today.

There are around 75,000 people here without power. It was up over 100,000 last night. Could have been a lot worse, though.

I'll give you an update later today, probably in a General Freshwater thread with a death count. Sigh.

Made it back to my house. Death count so far: 21 fish, 1 shrimp. The 38 gallon was a total loss. I tested the ammonia and there was a big spike: up around 8 ppm. I think that a lot of the snails died, and since the bioload was so heavy anyway, no filter meant lots of death. Sigh.

The betta and the 4 pygmy cories from the 10 gallon are alright. I brought them to my girlfriend's house just like I did with the gecko. We'll see what happens. I was able to bring over about half a gallon of water with them, but I'll probably run back home and get some more should the need arise.

I brought over the gecko's tank and he's doing fine.

More updates of the carnage later.

Aww sorry to hear about your losses Joe.

The pics really are great though We never see anything even remotely like that around here.

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

geez! what a rotten outcome Fingers crossed the survivors keep on fighting

Do those plants survive after being encased in ice for so long?? do you just end up with a lawn of mush?

And for heaven's sake, peg that poor reindeer hoof side down!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Sorry Joe I can honestly say I know how you feel since I've been there, done that, last year. You were lucky to find a motel room. Last year, ours were taken up quickly, especially after the power crews rolled into town...they took any remaining rooms that were left. We stayed with relatives that rented a room early. After a couple days we both ran out of money, so we moved in with other relatives that still had electric. (one good reason to have relatives around)

I only had one tank at the time, a 55g. & we covered it with blankets before we left. After a week of below freezing temps. I still had fish survive.... bronze cories, zebra danios & red eyed tetras.

I was depressed over the loss of fish, but thankful all our animals made it, as well as us humans. I was never so cold or frightened in my life. Sometimes the electric would go out in the motel even. It's scary to look out a window & see your whole town black from lack of electric & ice covering everything in bitterly cold weather with the room getting cold too. And for some reason, our cell phs. were out?

Anyway, I'm sorry for your fish loss but I'm glad you all made it ok & found a motel room. As that storm passed through Tulsa before it hit you, they ran out of rooms there & had to open up a lot of temporary shelters.

Did you have any cats or dogs that had to be left behind? Keep us informed on what is going on there. I wish you the best under such circumstances!

Aww so sorry to hear the bad news

Two years ago storm (the day adam arrived) had me without power for 18 hours or more, it was off when I came home from work at 8am. Luckily all my fish made it through, that's one good thing about living in row houses, house temp was only down to 48.


Calla, some of the plants do survive, they're "used" to it. The worst damage to the plants happens when we get a late storm through in march or april once they've started putting out buds. Older trees usually make it. I remember one storm where our dogwood actually had a few small flowers out.

Joe, et al you know I'd send some heat for the tanks if I could

^_^

Sorry to hear about your hard times and heavy losses, Alex. I hope things get better for you, dude...

And yes, Calla, a lot of plants survive the winter just fine. Most trees lose their leaves just before winter, most of the flowers and other 'annuals' die, but most plants recover just fine. Even the grass is fine after it defrosts and all of the snow melts away.

I had a few pictures that I wanted to post, but I can't seem to find them at the moment...