Oklahoma Ice Storm

If any of you have been watching the news, you probably already know that a lot of Oklahoma is without electric. Over this past weekend we started having ice storms. Basically, just rain that freezes. On Saturday night I think was the first storm. We weren't sure if we would get to go to church Sunday morning, but it didn't affect the roads and we were able to go to church. Then Sunday evening was our Church Christmas party, and everyone was able to make it to that. The kids were in the children's play and they basically just sang a few Christmas songs. It was very cute and just a really enjoyable evening. Then Sunday night it rained hard. We woke up at about 5:00 am without power. We later found out that the power went off at about 2:30 am. Ryan did go ahead and go to work at about 6:30 am, because where he works had generators. I'm thankful for that, because we really can't afford to miss work. But we got up and just couldn't believe all the trees that were breaking outside. Basically you could hear one RIGHT after another. Ollie and Sharon invited us to go to breakfast with Chris and Melissa. So my mom, me and the kids got dressed very warm and I went out and started scraping my van windows. I ended up breaking my blade doing so. We went to breakfast and saw SO many branches broken everywhere. Ice covered everything in sight. My mom suggested getting gas before the store possibly lost power. So I did, and was very glad I did, because that evening, there were cars backed up to try to get gas, and there was no line when we got gas. We ate breakfast with everyone and then came home. I have a phone that works on the phone line power and not electric, so we called a few people in Colorado to let them know what was going on. After Ollie and Sharon had time to get home,I called them and found out that Henryetta had not lost power, but did find out that ALL of Oklahoma City to Tulsa (100+ mile stretch) was without power. 600,000 Oklahomans were without power and was expected to be without power for 7-10 days. President Bush declared an emergency in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. So I started packing to flee to my in-laws. We waited until Ryan got home from work and we left our home, not knowing when we could return. The roads were PACKED leaving Sapulpa, and like I said, there was probably a 30 minute wait to get gas, so i was thankful for our full tank. We made it to Ollie & Sharon's house. Chris and Melissa are without power also, so they are down here with us. Lee and Cherrie are without electric and water, but they are staying with a couple who managed to keep their electric. There is so much clean up that will have to be done before they can restore power. The kids don't have school this week, but they will have to make up for it at the end of the school year. Also, I wasn't sure if my mom was going to get to fly home yesterday, but she did go ahead and fly home yesterday. On Monday, they had cancelled all flights. But she is home safe now. But I really don't know when I get to go home. I'm so glad that I had family to go to, and not just a shelter of strangers, like MANY people had to do. This is crazy! I'm going to go and check on my house today and get a few more clothes to bring down here. We really are a society that is not ready for these kinds of problems. I know I wasn't. I will post pictures as soon as I can, but I'm not able to today, I don't have the right software here.