Christmas day ice storm cripples Watauga County

Nearly twenty-four hours after a Christmas day Ice storm wreaked havoc on Watauga County, North Carolina, my husband and I ventured off our mountain to check on a few of our interests in the neaby town of Boone. Note: The above images are taken through the dirty, cracked windshield of our Dodge truck. While the main roads were fine yesterday afternoon, side roads remain ice covered. Mind you, all the white stuff in the photos are the remnants of last week's sixteen inches of snow but which have now been transformed into ice.

Locals have named this particular state of emergency as the "Crystal Christmas of 2009." Most Wataugans lost power and as I write this, 500 remain unconnected to the grid. I have not heard of any loss of life caused by the ice storm but to be certain, there is plenty of property damage. In areas, entire tops of trees are twisted and splintered. Mother Nature did shoddy job of pruning. But to live in the mountains is to accept the often rugged conditions with resolute determination. And , a dose of good humor never hurts. After the fact, a friend of mine who was stranded alone for over 24 hours without power, showed his power of positive thinking and said, " Hey, free mulch for all!"

Indeed;)

Monte Mitchell of the Winston-Salem Journal wrote a good round-up article on the storm.