Polly, are you okay?

Oh yes, we are okay. The weather guys were saying a tornado is like a small hurricane. It certainly is. This afternoon's storms made all the scary memories of Katrina come rushing back. We can take shelter but our hearts always go the policemen, firemen, ambulance folks and everyone who must keep on going as well as those who lost their homes to Katrina and live in very fragile housing. God bless them all. Polly

Good thoughts to all of you. Stay safe.

Last forcast I heard we had a big cyclone thinking of hitting the north east coast here. Haven't heard an update for a while, but good thoughts to our friends up there too. I know parts of Queensland are getting buckets of rain ATM. Wish we could get at least a little of it down here too, even if it came with a storm.

And you. Polly! Glad to hear you are safe.

So glad to hear you and yours are OK, Polly, What a scare for everyone...the storm's come our way now, we have a lovely 'icy mix' going on outside as we are in a weather advisory until noon. I may end up not going to work after all.

-Irene (>Oh yes, we are okay. The weather guys were saying a tornado is like a = small=20

I think the worst of the storm is through these parts now. Minnesota has had anywhere from about 8" to 2 feet of snow in the last 2 days, preceded by ice in some areas. Most of the schools and a lot of the businesses in the state are closed. All of the highways, including the interstates, in the southwestern part of the snow were closed; they had to pull the plows because the visibility was near zero with the blowing snow. Things are worse south of us a bit in Iowa because they got more freezing rain and ice. Still, most of us would much rather have the snow than the tornados.

Yesterday I decided I could use a bit of that snow. I mixed up a batch of homemade ice cream, brought in a couple buckets of snow for the ice cream maker, and made ice cream. Our condo residents had an ice cream social. Yum :)

Julia > So glad to hear you and yours are OK, Polly, What a scare for

I think I would agree with that, but I got very lucky and haven't been without power or heat even for a bit like many have. And some still don't have it returned from the frist blast. I guess they at least still have their homes though.

My prayers to all those in areas devistated by the tornados, ice, and snow that have hit our country this past week.

The IA gov. has delcared parts of all 99 Iowa counties as disater areas because of the storms last week. Many here lost power with last weeks storm. Many have had their power restored after a couple of days, but there are also many that haven't. Entire towns have been with out power all week. Shelters have been set up so people have a place to warm up and get a hot meal, but it sounds like in some areas people are not choosing to use them and staying in their homes instead. National Guard was called up to help last week to bring in generators and other equipment to help set up the shelters and to do wellfare checks in areas where people were not coming and using the shelters.

One family apparently lost their home to a fire while they were at at hotel for a the night during a power outage. They were ones that were without power for just a few hours and one of their outlets created sparks and started a fire when the power to their home was restored. Appaently the fire put itself out and so the outside was fine. They had no idea until they opened the door and the smoke rolled out. They lost everyting in the house and the house maybe a total loss too, I'm not sure.

There are also alot of travelers stranded in Iowa because of the interstates being closed down. Last update on them was about 8:30 am. and they are still closed. Travel in most of the state not advised.

I'm not too terribly informed about everyting, but that is what I have heard. Maybe Louise or KJ know more. I'm just tring to stay warm and saine since obviously there is no school and the kids are all hipped up from being stuck in the house these past few days.

Charlotte

Our power was off from 4:30pm on Saturday to just after 9am on Sunday. So we weathered things fine. Nothing in the refrigerators spoiled....even though we were being told to throw things away if the power had been off more than 4 hours. We kept the doors shut and it was chilly in the house, no way had anything spoiled that fast! There has been a lot of tree damage around town, but our area has been pretty lucky in terms of long outtages or storm damages. Today we are having high winds, but we only had a light snow last night and NO ice! So far, so good. I think this storm hit harder in Western Iowa than in Eastern Iowa where I live. I hear the temps should be in the 40-50's next week. That will be nice.

Glad to hear things are well for you. I figured since you were in the Iowa City (I think) area you were probably Ok this round. Any word from Louise? She's from near there too isn't she?

Charlotte (near Ames)

Louise is north of me in the Cedar Rapids area. Some of the outtages there are spotty...but I believe a lot of it is rural. The schools here and there have been in session pretty much since Tuesday/Wednesday.

I'm doing fine! Our power was out for (we think) about 15 minutes last weekend, but we've been okay this time around. We're just thankful we didn't get more than a couple of inches of snow - I can't imagine the size of the drifts we would have had this morning! I think central and western Iowa got hit much harder than we did.

Everybody stay safe!

Howdy!

Please change the subject line. Or has Polly moved to the Iowa City area?

Ragmop/Sandy -- resisting asking "in what regard?" to the question "Polly, are you okay?" (Polly's okay with me!)

My application for residency in the Great State of Iowa was rejected in no uncertain terms. Something about leash laws and gators I suspect. Polly

"Sandy Ellison" Howdy!

Yeah, I thought about doing that just AFTER I sent a message in that thread. Sorry about that!

Sorry my bad.

Charlotte

Glad to hear you are well.

Charlotte

You know you would be welcome in my book! Don't think the gators would like all this snow we currently have though.

Charlotte