It was bad where I live too, although tonight is better than the day started. The storm that we had was mainly freezing rain -- I'm talking 1/2-inch or more encasement of everything. Before going to bed last night, when I let my dog out, I heard periodic cracks and crashes as large tree limbs snapped throughout the neighborhood. About 4:30 am, I lost power, which was restored in the afternoon (hence, the better than it started comment). My trees, although badly drooping, appear intact -- branches from the large Maple trees accross the street are bent so low cars must salom around them
My Mom had, and still has, it worse than me. Her power was also out this morning (it was restored after mine), although she still has very large limbs across both her main power lines and the feeder line (causing the cable anchor to snap off of her house -- I had to duck to duck under that line). She also has large limbs laying on her roof. At least this time her car wasn't crushed, as happened when Ike came through. She considers herself lucky to have avoided injury, that the house damage appears relatively minor, and to have power and heat.
After I cleared my walk and drive, I took a khukri over to Mom's house and chopped up and cleared some of her broken limbs. She'll still need the power company to come out and to hire a contractor to clear the biggest stuff. Then, when I got home, I saw a neighbor trying to shovel her drive with one of those short "emergency" snow shovels , so I went over and helped her -- If you don't own a bent-handled ergonomic snow shovel, you should really get one. I can clear several times as much snow with less back pain using mine than I can with a normal straight-handled shovel. They may look stupid, but you'd be amazed at how much better they work because you're standing more upright while shoveling. Still, my back's a bit sore from shoveling all that snow and ice (both today and yesterday) and my right arm is somewhat sore from chopping -- I'm a programmer and not nearly as used to strenuous physical activity as I once was.
