How to Cope and Prepare for a Winter Ice Storm

Winter is the time of year that we have to worry about getting an ice storm. Sometimes an ice storm can hit and make even the slightest movement outside impossible, even if you live right next door to a grocery store you may not be able to get to it with ice in the path. If the ice storm gets bad enough the electricity can go out and that could cause all kinds of problems since we are so dependent on our electricity for all kinds of things. Our water is pumped to our faucet with electricity and when we don’t have electricity we can’t get the water to our faucets. Our furnaces depend on electricity to bring us heat into our houses and we can lose the small things like our lights and our ability to cook all depends on electricity. If we have a power outage our lives can change dramatically since we depend so much on electricity.

If we think ahead we can avoid some discomfort in the likelihood that we have an ice storm that causes a power outage. If the weather person is predicting the slightest chance for a ice storm it is a good idea to take some precautions like . Fill up some containers with water. All kinds of containers can be used like a coffee pot or tea pot. If the electricity goes out it can be out for a long time, possibly days and you don’t want to go without water for that long. You can even fill your bathtub and use that water to wash with. Don’t forget to have water set aside for your pets too; they will need water if the electricity goes out as well.

Cooking can be a real challenge if the electricity goes out so if you cook with gas you are in luck because you can still fix a meal but you might want it to be an easy meal because you won’t have a good way to clean up afterwards. If you cook with electricity you might have to eat cold food for awhile unless you might have a wood stove or burner. Then you can cook and heat the home at the same time. Getting heat for yourself is a big problem without electricity. If you have a wood burner of some kind you are in luck if you have some wood to burn if not you can get some hand warmers and use them to keep yourself somewhat warm. Wear all kinds of warm clothing when the house gets cold and maybe even put on your boots. If you are in a cold house you can get cold quickly so to dress warm is very important.

If you have some driveway salt available to spread on icy sidewalks and driveways it can help with the ice cleanup. You have to have the salt in your house somewhere so you can get to it the salt won’t be any good if it is far away in a garage that you have to walk outside in the ice to get too.

Ice Storms can be a very dangerous thing. Ice doesn’t always look slippery when it is on the ground and sometimes you don’t know it is slippery till you are laying on you back after a bad slip on the ice. Drive can be made dangerous at an extremely quick amount of time. If you are driving when an ice storm hits you can slip off the road in seconds. An ice storm can change the conditions of the roads in seconds and leave you stranded or worse. If you are driving in a sudden ice storm it is best to pull off to the side of the road and wait for help or find some help. There is no sure way of safety when an ice storm hits.

I remember my Grandma used to pound some nails into the soles of her shoes to make sharp points in them that could help her walk on icy side walks. That was how she got to church in an ice storm. I don’t recommend that unless you really have to go out in the ice.