what kind of trees...

reminds me of the slaughter of the siberian elms.. here in lenawee county.. a few years back ...

we stayed above freezing last night in adrian mi .. so we dodged this bullet ...

ken

These trees were more susceptible to such damage as they are older Ash trees and within a couple of seasons would have been brought down by the ever advancing "Emerald Ash Borer" infestation.

This post was edited by rouge21 on Sun, Dec 22, 13 at 16:53

That's terrible! I feel for you.

There's nothing worse in winter than ice. Give me 3 feet of snow any day of the week. The back may not agree, but at least you can walk or drive on snow. With ice, you stay put or risk broken bones or your life.

Luckily, we've only had snow and cold this winter. Of course, because the temps haven't been very warm for weeks, all the snow has basically turned into ice, but it's not the same as yours.

That rhodo photo is strangely beautiful. It almost looks like a drawing.

Kevin

We got the ice here too. Our power was off from about 4:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. We can only see two branches down on our property - a white pine branch and one from a scrawny old spruce in 'the wet corner'.. A neighbour on the next street to the west of us had a pine branch come down through the roof! Fortunately there were no injuries....

Ice is scary stuff....!

We got iced night before last. I was terrified because they had predicted a month's worth of precipitation in one day and we lost power for a week a few years back but the temperatures weren't nearly as cold that time. Since that experience, I am now terrified of these ice events. Fortunately, we didn't loose power and the ice didn't build up on the streets. OG&E has been trimming trees over power lines for the last several years since we have been hit so hard with ice storms and they are becoming more frequent. This time the wind was down and that also helped. I have seen worse buts its our second ice storm of the season so far. OKC looked like a war zone the last time we got a big one a couple years ago.

Check out this frozen cactus, its actually very pretty out there, the ornamental grasses look like weird sculpture and all the plants are iced but the ground is clear, I've never seen that before. Its so cold nothing is melting at all.

cyrstalized grasses.

Thanks for your support. There shouldn't be much of a problem with dormant perennials but my hydrangeas, lilacs, Japanese Maples and established cedar hedge will take a hit :(.

For example here is a lilac almost prone.

This post was edited by rouge21 on Sun, Dec 22, 13 at 17:02

We just got back from shopping, saw lots of broken limbs on trees and expect more with that weight on them but the streets weren't blocked with huge branches like sometimes. I have a tall holly laying down completely prone on the back porch and I noticed lots of trimming will be in order this spring for broken limbs, big cactus sections that split off the plants and such. Looks like I lost a few plants from cold, or at least they are killed to the roots. Time will tell. Shrubs like yours in that picture will straighten back up when the weight of the ice is gone.

I was surprised at how things really did recover around here and snap back after that very bad one a couple years ago. This last storm was a small event compared to the destruction that time. It looks worse in some cases than it is but the cleanup is a mess. The trees that took massive damage recovered and looked fine within a relatively short time. I was surprised.

We had a very severe ice storm in the 90s and the power was off here for over two weeks. They don't fix stuff here fast.

We got it in Aurora too, Rouge.

Yesterday:

Today:

After 30 hours without any power (just came back on):

Looking the other way:

My spouse:

Always more agile (and braver?) than me:

Sunny, tell spouse walking on ice with hands in pockets is not a good idea. Arms need to be free, for balance and for catching oneself ;)

After 30 hours without any power (just came back on)

==>> and sunny runs to talk to us ... lol

we love you too .... lol

thx for the pix ....

ken

Yikes. Sorry to see all the ice out there. (and thanks for the updates!)
I hate how that stuff sticks around for days and weeks too....

Good point, Morz.

Thanks, Ken.
Having no internet was the worst of it.

No light, except flashlights, candles and the wood fire, around the shortest day of the year, was also little fun for the evening; but still able to do sudokus.

Think we can do a lot with perennial gardening here, with the strong seasonality, but winter is the price to pay.

Rouge, thanks for raising the issue.
Am sure it's an interesting experience for you too.

Sorry for the inconveniences and damages caused by the ice storms this past week. Appreciate seeing a bit of the beauty that comes with the devastation. While I am not looking forward to an ice storm in our area I will be interested as our electric company just finished burying our lines last month, no more power outages expected.

Thanks, Mnwsgal.

We do actually have buried hydro lines throughout our own division. Think despite all the tree damage, it's been a real advantage for getting the power restored here.

They're talking about some folk having no power till well after Christmas.

Glad you've got buried lines going for you.

My family lives in the Lansing, MI area, while I'm in Grand Rapids. Both my mom and sister had no power starting a few days ago. Sister's is back on, but Mom's isn't expected back on until the 28th late in the evening. And another storm watch is in effect all day today with snow on top of the ice. Over 100,000 people around Lansing are without power today. I feel very fortunate. I worry about my hospice staff, though, who are out on the roads night and day in all types of weather. I'll be out with them again tomorrow. We don't get to stay home no matter how bad it gets. One Christmas I gave everyone a jug of salt to carry in their cars. I still think it was the best gift I've ever come up with. Lol.

Hope everyone is warm and safe.

Martha

With continuing cold temps (3F) the ice isn't going away for the foreseeable future. I took this shot yesterday (what you see is only ice i.e. no snow):

Beautiful, Rouge.

In bright sun, the trees look like they're decorated with crystals. Quite spectacular.

But it's not good, however, that drooping branches are still bent down. Apparently, they can take out overhead power cables when the ice melts and the branches go back up.

I remember when this happened to us a few years back. I couldn't figure out what the blue flashes of light in the sky that night were. I tried to get the work the following morning with no power and there were trees down everywhere, making it an interesting journey. The blue flashes of light turned out to be power transmitters, yup took a week to get the power back on. I didn't lose a single branch off either one of my trees but several of my neighbors not so lucky.

I live in Barry County in Michigan and we got hit pretty hard with ice. I think at one time 85% of the population was without power starting on Sunday the 22nd. We lost power at 7:30 am on the 22nd and got it back three days later at around 4 am Christmas morning. Some people around the area just got theirs back on today. I lost several of my fish due to no power or heat for the three days we were without. My parents ended up staying with my sister in Grand Rapids for a night where she had power. I had to stay behind because GR was too far for me to drive to work. I work in Battle Creek. So I had to sleep in a house that was only 40 degrees beneath several layers of blankets with several layers of clothes on to keep warm. We had some nights in the teens with daytime highs in the 20's. So grateful for heat and power. Even the cats were miserable and couldn't understand why it was so cold in the otherwise warm house.

But the ice and snow made for some really pretty landscapes. Too bad I wasn't able to take pictures of any of it. I worked from sun up to sundown every day and didn't have the time to capture the stark beauty before the last two days of above freezing temps melted it away.

Karen

UPDATE:

There are many reports that Toronto has lost over 20% of its tree canopy because of this most recent ice storm.

Here is a link that might be useful: trees so hard hit