#*&$! Ice Storm!

[j_cheney]

So, here's the river birch in front of our house....see that main center trunk---the one snapped in half? (This is, BTW, a 30 foot or so tree. Hard to tell from the pic, but it's actually quite tall)

Here's our desperate attempt to keep more branches from breaking off the saw-tooth oak.

We've already lost a couple of huge branches, displacedtexan estimates that 1/5 of the tree is gone now. We're hoping not to loose much more. On the other hand, the hedge maples and the bald cypress and the pear are doing fine so far. The yaupons are showing a lot of stress, but we've only seen a few snapped branches.

When the wind gets here tomorrow, we're going to be in a lot of trouble.

Comments

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

Oh, ouch!

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Aiaiai! I hope some of the ice melts before the wind.

I remember when I was going to college in Ohio, we'd have the most horrific ice storms, trees falling to bits all over.

I don't think we got that much damage, but there was a goodly bit of ice on the car when I got out to it and it took a while to clean it off. and three tries to get out of the driveway, but the roads weren't bad as long as you weren't stupid. From what I read in the news, the storm had spent a lot of its ire in Oklahoma. Here it was mostly a matter of being very, very careful. I didn't see any large branches or trees down, just little stuff.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

We're supposed to have freezing rain again tonight, and then a possibility of rain tomorrow. If we do get rain, then wind, it woudl be better. If we get wind, then rain, we're cooked.

Currently 1/3 of the state is without power, so I do consider myself lucky!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm sad!

[displacedtexan.livejournal.com]

Sad as the loss of trees is, at least we have power (so far) and a dry roof over our heads. I'm consoling myself with that.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Me, too! As we're a relatively low population area in terms of OKC, we're probably much lower on the OGE grid to be restored if things do go bad!

[jess-ka.livejournal.com]

Yipes. I'm sorry; poor trees.

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Poor trees, indeed!

Yes, if some of the ice is off the branches before the wind, that would put less strain on them.

I had to put the last of my ice-melt on the rink at the end of my driveway this evening.
I hope you guys have relief soon, and no more treedeath!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

We're getting cold rain today, which is exactly what we need!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Yep, me, too...

[samhidaka.livejournal.com]

Uh . . . have you considered using hot water?

Do you have a faucet that can connect to a garden hose? (For ex, a sink in a laundry room sometimes has a threaded faucet that can attach to a hose.)

Spray the trees with hot tap water -- for long enough to melt most of the ice. You probably don't want to melt all the ice, because that might raise the temperature enough that the thermal shock could hurt the plants. But melt enough to remove most of the weight of the ice.

You can probably help the bush with buckets of hot tap water. But for the trees, you'll need an amount of hot water that's only practical with a hose.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, it's reached 32 here, and things are beginning to melt off. By the time the wind gets here, most of the ice should be melted. We're concenred about internal damage to the trees, (stress hidden by the bark) but won't have the tree guys out until spring. We'll probably have a couple more of these storms between now and then (we had 3 last year) so for now, we'll cut out the dead branches and hope that the next one isn't as bad!

[dkolodji.livejournal.com]

I can't even imagine such a thing as an ice storm. It sounds far too cold for my native Southern California body....

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I'm fron the desert, so I'm not fond of it either!