Ice Storm 2023

Well, the ice storm of 2023 lived up to the hype.  They actually cancelled school for Wednesday on Tuesday night due to the incoming storm.  The freezing rain started mid morning and it didn’t take long for a thin coating of ice to form on the trees.  The temperature stayed around 31 degrees all day so the roads never got icy.  Alex had hockey Wednesday night and by that point, there was a lot of ice on the trees but the roads were still fine.  At around 8pm, we started to hear the tree branches in the neighborhood start to crack and fall.  Our neighbors lost a tree in their front yard.  We got the call around 10pm that school was closed for Thursday as well.  Since we had midwinter break on Friday and Monday, we ended up with 6 days off!  At around 4am, our power went out.  The estimated restoration date was scheduled for Monday.  At one point, they bumped it out to March 3!  We pulled battery powered lights, candles, and flashlights.  And also pulled food from the refrigerator and filled a cooler on the porch.  By the time we went to bed, the house was down to 58 degrees and Friday morning it was at 52.  We packed up everything (Guinea pig, dog, food) and drive to Grandma’s for the night.  Will had a hockey game in Hudsonville so it worked out well.  On Saturday morning, we got the notice that power was restored!  We packed back up and came home to assess the damage.  We lost a lot of huge branches on our white pine trees but fortunately, we didn’t lose entire trees.