Northwest Arkansas looks like a nuclear bomb went off. this week. Thank goodness nothing quite that serious happened, but it sure has been hectic!
On Monday afternoon, a storm front started moving into the area that rapidly made the streets very slick. All the local schools let out early so they could get the kids home before it got too bad. The precipitation didn’t completely stop until Wednesday morning or so and by that time, we’d had random periods of all the types of winter precipitation that are not fun: freezing rain, sleet and snow. The problem was, it kept going back and forth between the three, which seemed to make the roads and sidewalks even more treacherous.
This storm has made more than 100,000 homes lose power in the area and as of Sunday night, some still don’t have power. We lost power a few times, but never more than a few hours…thank goodness! Because of the bad roads and lack of electricity, everything pretty much came to a standstill throughout the whole area. The schools let out for four days and many businesses and government offices shut down as well. I had to work from home and John wasn’t able to go to work all week. It was kinda fun being iced in with my new hubby but it still would have been nice to have the option to leave!
Now that we’ve had two days of 50+ degree weather, the snow and ice is finally melting. Although it’s funny, there are still large patches on the side roads. All in all we got about two inches of snow on top of two or so inches of ice. Not a good combination for the roads, but especially for the trees!
I think that’s the most noticeable damage. The roads were actually so bad that most people stayed off of them. But the trees weren’t so lucky. I can’t even express how many trees have been destroyed, damaged or just weighed down from all the ice. It’s going to take a long time to clean up!
All in all, this could have been worse. But this was certainly bad enough.
Here’s a link slide show of some of the damage in our park and in our parking lot.
Glad to know you are safe and that you have power. I have been thinking of all those who have been hit by this storm! I am glad you and hubby have each other to stay warm and keep each other safe!!!