In January 2007 a serious of three storms hit Missouri.
The area was covered with thick heavy ice that left 200,000 Missourians
without electrical power. Which meant that most were left without
lights, heat and phone service. Most in rural communities who are
dependant on wells for their water were even left without water because the
well pumps require electricity to operate. This means farms with
livestock were left without a means of providing water for their livestock.
Many many people are left without phone service because their land phone
lines were down too. Further some cell phone towers were inoperable.
Beyond that even without electricity people could not recharge the batteries
on their cell phones.
With trees down across fences livestock were wondering out of their
pastures looking for water sources and grass that wasn't covered with THICK
ice. Farmers who had no heat, no electric, no water and no phones were
out traipsing the slippery terrain in search of the missing horses and
cattle.
My horses got out and my brother went out in the freezing weather to find
and rescue them. Trees and limbs fell on horses and cattle all across the
Ozarks as the animals sought shelter from the pounding storm in the trees.
Except this time instead of the trees being shelter the trees and huge
branches were coming down ON the horses and cattle.
We have posted 106 ice storm photos here for you to get a feel of what it
is like. The ice storm photos have been split up into seven sets.
Each small photo can be clicked on to see that photo larger.
These photos
were actually taken 5 days after the storm, and this is what was still
frozen. The whole land, city and county felt like a big deep freeze.
School stopped, businesses stopped, the world stopped. It was a
struggle for survival for most families.
