Practically being buried in the news is the fact that the midwest portion of the U.S. has been buried under an ice storm. So far there are 22 deaths and 600,000 without power (and some may not get power restored in a week!). This includes states from Oklahoma to Indiana. Arkansas is on the edge of the storm.

I'm concerned about Kstew in Arkansas -- are you out there Kstew? Everything okay in Arkansas?
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Some if not all of the hotels in Oklahoma that are without power have had to evacuate the guests if they don't have a backup power source.

It kind of missed us. We're bad, but not FEMA bad. Kansas and Missouri really got hit - Kansas City in particular is in a very bad way.

There are now 1,000,000 without power. In freezing cold weather!

I just checked to see when Kstew was last on line after reading your post Jar, and it's "User account no longer active". Maybe one of you knows why.

No clue, I wonder if she is without electricity?

I just searched a bit and found her id is ktstew, not kstew, my error. I see she posted both Monday and today. O ktstew, where are you? I suppose if she is posting then she must be all right. I sent her a PM, so hopefully we'll know soon.

I just got a PM from Ktstew, and she is okay. Says the ice is 30 minutes away and moving west, just wet and dreary. Glad to know everything is okay on that front.

Glad you are okay Stu, and knowing you're with electricity is good! There are so many without, it's worrisome to me that some may not get theirs back for another week to 10 days. It is rather cold, how are these people to stay warm?

When this happened to my folks last year, they came to stay with me. When it happened to my grandparents a while back, they had a kerosene stove they used. There are also shelters (Guard armories and the like) around that still have heat. Not a good time. Hope they get thorough it.

Odd that something effecting over 1 million people is not more widespread on the news, as compared to other natural disasters in recent times. Nor has drawn much interest on this board.

I would hope they have shelters, such as schools and arenas, with their own generators and heat sources if people in the area without power do not have their own alternate heat source or generators.

Part of me says it's because we're dealing with the Midwest this time. Midwesterners tend to be pretty stoic about their weather disasters. It isn't the first time there's been an ice storm that has knocked power out all over. Last year it was western nebraska, this year we only got a "dusting" of about a quarter-inch, not enough weight to take out the power lines. But plainly, Midwesterners deal with ice and snow, even those without power haven't lost everything, usually, just a warm place to stay fo a while, and then only if they don't have generators or fireplaces or wood-burning stoves, etc.

If by stoic you mean midwesterners are capable of handling most anything life throws at them no matter how bad it is, I can see where you are coming from.

Which is rare in this day and age of its someone else's fault my life sucks.

Guess that isn't not too good for news ratings, people saying they are gonna handle what happened to them.

Crying and blaming the national and local governments for natural disasters makes better news.

Yesterday, on a 4 hour news program, at least 3 were dedicated to the fact that it was snowing here. It's Colorado, in December. Ya think it may snow eventually. I'm glad to see that people are starting to pick up and carry on instead of crying to the government to come and get them. I may use the ice storms to convince my sister that a back-up generator is a good idea.

Well, yes. Midwesterners are not only capable of, but they also expect to, handle the natural disasters we deal with regularly. Like I said, it isn't the first ice storm that the Midwest has had to deal with. Everyone I know who has lived in the midwest for more than, say, 10 years, has dealt with a major winter storm at some point. The thing about these storms, though, is that most people aren't losing their homes, like with a hurricane or earthquake. We lose power, we lose heat... we have candles, we have generators, we have batteries, we have fireplaces, we have communities who band together, expecting that we will be, as usual, alone to handle most of the hardship we have to work through during this rough season.

It's how Midwesterners as a group generally operate. Drought, tornado, major thunderstorms that take out power and destroy homes, even without tornado-force winds, feet of snow, inches of ice... 10 years ago my parents were without power for almost 10 days after a major snow storm hit early in the season. They stayed in their home, the slept in front of their fireplace. Meanwhile, halfway across the city, I didn't even lose my cable television. Every day I took hot food to my parents. They'd have been welcome in my apt. if I'd had the room. Did the government send in people to help them clean the fully one half of a 60 year old sycamore from their backyard that had split down the trunk and barely missed their house? No, that was me and my friends and some chainsaws. Did they expect help from the government? No, that's why they have kids.

I just think Midwesterners are more self-reliant and community aware than a lot of other parts of the country, and in general we KNOW we might have to deal with no power for a week in subzero temps, because it's happened before, and we PREPARE for that eventuality, not for an "if" but for a "when" and we know that we can do it ourselves so we don't sit and wait for someone to come do it for us.

Those are all under recognized qualities that all people and communities should have.

Glad ktstew is ok. Thinking of the other 1,000,000 without power in the cold.

I predict a rise in the birth rate in about nine months!

We get a lot of blackouts here that can go for hours plus but at least it's not ever freezing enough here to be too much of a pain. plus we ahve a backup plant if it does go on a bit.

I'm very glad to know ktstew is all right. Thank's Jar for the info on her as I did get a little worried when I saw that. Ice storms are beautiful, but definitely deadly. Sandy

I think another reason we haven't had a lot of coverage of the ice is because the media is having so much coverage of the Nebraska Mall shootings and the Colorado church shootings. It would seem to me that this ice is so wide spread (Oklahoma to Iowa to Indiana) that the almost 1,000,000 people without electricity, self sufficient or not, would be as newsworthy.

One would think, but I imagine the shootings get better ratings.

I think most of us are in agreement on that Lothruin.

Peolpe banding together and dealing with harsh conditions is so less newsworthy then psychopaths.

Yes. Who could possibly be interested in hearing about ordinary people coping with trouble in heroic and inventive ways?
Me, for one. I grew up on the stories of Laura Ingalls and her daughter Rose, along with hearing about my own pioneer ancestors. The coldest I have ever endured was -10 F, back years ago when we had those kind of winters. But our wood furnace kept us nice and warm. Harsh temps like that are awfully hard on the stock, though, who had to be tended several times a day.

I thought I heard my name being bandied about. Thank you for your concern, everybody - but we're fine, though soggy. We may not be quite so chipper Friday night however, when that six inches of snow finally comes through and we go down into the teens. It's true - I'm just not as hale and hearty as I used to be.

Glad to hear everyone on the Funtrivia site is okay despite the storms.

Just a thought though...there are still people alive who grew up without any electricity and in some parts of the world it is still not accessible to them.

Do you think we have become too dependent on something that is still not an everyday commodity to a lot of people in the world even in this day and age?

I wonder how the homeless survive in the cold of winter without even a roof and four walls to cover them?

We are certainly dependent on Electricity if we wish to continue advancing in all phases of technology and being more of a global connected community.

Urban areas have shelters, and areas where the homeless camp out that have protection from the elements. Those homeless which are down on their luck or have mental illnesses I feel bad for, those who are there due to addiction and refuse to get help it is tough to feel sorry for.