Ice, ice baby

I know I have a skewed perspective on ice and snow having grown up in Michigan and lived in Chicago twice. I was first introduced to "snow mania" when I lived in Washington D.C. where reports of a possible flurry (notice that's not plural) would send people to the Safeway to stock up on milk and bread.

I thought it must be a regional thing. But soon realized after moving to southern Virginia and now Kentucky that this is a southern thing. People FREAK OUT when there are reports of snow coming.

This time, the snow actually materialized. And then came the ice.

I should have known about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday morning as I listened to a transformer exploding somewhere in my neighborhood and then the cracking and crashing of tree limbs that I was in for a busy few days.

Somehow I escaped this storm pretty much unscathed. By some miracle I did not lose power -- only a few flickers early on. My car did not have a tree limb land through its windshield, despite the number of trees I regularly park under. I haven't fallen on my rear or had snow fall inside my boots leaving that uncomfortable cold, wet sock thing going on.

I only once had to bat my eyelashes and cheerily smile at a couple of strangers and ask them to help push my car free from the ice it was stuck in.

But I have been busy as all get out. I've been going to daily press briefings on the status of massive power outages. I've listened to people tell their stories about how they are trying to cope without power. I've had to hear about lives lost because of carbon monoxide poisoning. It's not been fun.

In Louisville, we've seen the worst for the most part. Power is coming back on and the ice is starting to melt. Not so happy to hear that there will be another 1 to 3 inches of snow piling up tomorrow, but what can you do.

I expect I'll be heading out into the state later this week to see how people are coping in the areas that are really hard hit ... those places where they may not get power back for weeks. The areas where the National Guard is being called in to help. I'll keep you posted on that.