What a storm!  This has been on long week and it hasn't really ended yet.  We survived the ice storm so far.  It was tuesday night when the trees became so burdened that they snapped and took power lines with them.  My sister had lost power by the time she came home from work.  She brought her cat to stay with K at our house.  I was on-call at work praying that my back-ups could make it in if there was a large emergency.  Our house lost power around midnight.  My sister and K made the decision to stay in bed and try and stay warm.  K came to work the next morning around 6:30 to take a shower.  I slept at work in one of the call rooms.  When I woke up, I tried to contact my sister and K's parents to see if anybody had any power and make sure they were ok.  Cell phones were only working intermittantly.  Many land lines were down.  My sister's in-laws took us in for the night.  We were very greatful to have a warm place to stay! 

Most of Jonesboro did not have power.  The hospital was running on generator most of Tuesday night and Wednesday.  You could stand at the windows and watch the fireworks as transformers blew.  Our clinic turned into an urgent care that combine Children's clinic.  Walkie-talkies became our form of communication.  Responsibilities were handed out...including K triaging at the front desk...others were responsible for contacting everybody at the clinic to make sure everybody was ok...We even had one couple that became responsible for finding food.  You wouldn't believe how happy we were to have a sandwich and a warm coke. 

As you drive down the roads of Jonesboro you see a mixed picture.  If there was a straight path of destruction one might think that a tornado had hit.  Trees are on their side.  Branches are on the ground that have snapped from the top half of the trees.  You also get the picture of a flood.  Trees are uprooted.  Busted waterlines have created minature lakes of water.  Jonesboro was prepared for tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes.  No one ever thought an ice-storm could do this much damage. 

FEMA is here now with the red cross.  The ASU convocation center is currently housing several victims who still do not have power.  Most of Jonesboro has power, but it may be several weeks before many of the outlying communities will see power.  Candles are fun for a while, but several days without a shower becomes burdensome.  Our physical health is affected as we cannot access our medicines or our portable oxygen supplies run low.  Our mental health is affected as well.  A natural disaster such as this produces a high stress environment.  We must modify our daily activies.  We must become creative about where we will sleep for the night.  We lack our normal outlets of stress relief.  TV's run on electricity.  Books require light. 

For now Jonesboro and NEA is surviving.  Cooperation is not at its best, people are still cold, and systems must always be modified.  Hopefully within the next few days we will see more improvement and less fatigue.

Here a few pictures from our house.  They were taken on Thursday after our power returned and after everything had begun to melt.  They are nothing compared to some of the destruction we have seen. 

 This last picture is of individual blades of grass frozen and surrounded by a combination of sleet, snow, and ice. 

When was the last time somebody told you to not apologize for asking them to do their job?  I'm not sure that it has every happened to me...and certainly not in the last 6 months.  I had the most pleasant encounter the other day.  After getting transferred three times I finally was on the phone with this one customer service employee.  I started into my saga by apologizing for having created this mess that I needed their assistance in making work.  I had only just said: I'm sorry...when she interrupted me and told me that I should never be sorry for asking her to do her job...that helping me was her job and she would be happy to do it.  I almost cried.  It was wonderful to be working with someone who not only knew how to do their job, they were happy to do it!  If only we could all be so happy performing our jobs. 

While you (and I) contemplate how to be happy while the world want to stay perpetually unhappy (I found Psalms especially helpful), here are a few pictures from my trip home. 

 Old stone fence.