Winter Storm Euclid

Firstly I must say at home in Australia we watch the weather channel and think how boring, but being here you can see the importance of it. Any weather front from the west of the USA almost always ends up affecting a small part of the USA if not all of it. So as we have satellite TV we are, on a regular basis checking the weather and Christmas Day was no different. We kept an eye on it as the Storm Euclid was getting full time coverage, it was affecting a huge area of the states.

So our experience began as I sat and watched the weather channel. I looked out the window and I saw that the cord that is used so pin our annex down was growing in size! It was still only midday and as the rain fell and ran down the cord was icing up. The annex also had ice forming on the edges, yep it was cold no doubt about it.

11 am and it's icing up already


As we had agreed to take a roast turkey across to Chuck and Ceal's place I fired up the Weber ran back inside while the BBQ warmed up then got the turkey ran outside put it in the BBQ, and then straight back inside, it was bloody cold.

While lunch was cooking we sat and had a cup of tea when suddenly a massive tree came tumbling down just missing a family in their RV. I went outside to see what happened, spoke to the owner who said he was packing up and getting out, it put the wind up him and his family. Within 20 mins they were packed and heading out, his parting words, "Walmart is looking good!"

Huge trees were falling from the weight of ice



Once the turkey was cooked we headed over to Chuck and Ceals place. Sitting down to lunch the subject of "ice" rain was raised. I admitted that i had never heard of ice rain so it was explained to us plebs from Australia. In short it's exactly what it sounds like but what happens is the ice sticks to the trees. As a lot of the tree root systems are shallow, the trees become top heavy and fall over! Shit we are hearing trees drop all over the place, yep we were starting to get worried! Chuck and I went out to check out the trees nearest us - one was a pine tree shaped like a bow it was so heavy on top. It was leaning away from our trailer so although we are worried we assumed it would fall away from us.

Just on dusk we see our first glimpse of snow falling from the sky, a first for both Rose and I. We don our jackets, grab the camera and out we go. Of course the locals think we are nuts, this is why they come south each year, to escape the snow! Back inside more conversation and out we go again, we cannot believe we are seeing real snow falling.

The first flakes of snow


Christmas dinner at Ceal and Chuck's



About 11 pm we saw a blinding blue flash, we all stopped talking for a second and then realised that the power had gone off. We hardly noticed as the RV uses batteries for lighting and propane (LPG) for heating so no great effect for the time being. Not long after Rose and I headed home - the snow is about 8 inches thick or 20 cm, are we excited? You bet we are! First thing we did was fire up the generator so that we would have hot water for a shower, then the fun began! We were like two kids - speechless as we looked at the winter wonderland around us, (keep in mind we have never seen such an event before). So we built snowmen, threw snowballs, took photos, walked around and wondered at the sights before us. We were so excited to be experiencing our first ever "white" Christmas! Words do not describe how much fun we had. By 2 am we were done so a hot shower and to bed.

Our first snowmen


Don't throw it Rose, I have the camera in hand!


Yep the snow came down, our truck!


We ran the generator all night, for no other reason than to keep the fan heater going in what we call the basement - the area where all our pipes run through. If the water pipes freeze they can burst, not a situation we wanted to be in. The temperature got down to minus 4 c that night.

The next morning I woke up early and braved the cold to take photos and survey the damage. There was no access in or out of the park as several trees were uprooted and blocking the way, we were stranded. We had enough generator fuel for a few hours more but that was about all, after that we go cold! We talked to Chuck and Ceal and they told us that they had already requested that the National Park people send someone out to cut the trees to clear the road so that we could go and get some more fuel and supplies. By 3 pm they had cut a path through the fallen trees and we head to town for more fuel and two more "gas" cans - as expected they are the biggest selling item of the day. So we settle in for the long haul considering it too dangerous to head out on the icy roads. Then began the cycle of topping up the generator on a regular basis, making sure it didn't run dry, including a nightly 3am top up. The snow very quickly turns into black ice so even the daily trip into town to get more fuel for the generator was risky enough without even thinking of leaving and towing the 5th wheeler.

The morning after


The best seats in the house


A winter wonderland


Sunrise



We waited for the power to come back on for 3 days but were told that it could be 7 days or more before this happened as they are not prepared for snow storms here like they are up the north of the USA and had to get extra work crews in to help. Given we were in a National Park with 2 others we weren't going to be a number one priority.

Day 4 I woke up and said to Rose, we are not going forward here and the ranger reported that the walking trails would be impassable due to the number of fallen trees etc, so we packed up heading for somewhere (anywhere!) that had power.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Gulpha George Arkansas