After years of mild weather in the St. Louis area, this is the second time we have been hit hard in a year.  In July, two storms in one week left hundreds of thousands of homes without power in 95 degree plus temperatures (F) .  On Thursday afternoon this week, an ice storm followed by snow has once again left 500,000 homes without power.  Because I live in a rural area  with a history of random power outages lasting several hours, my husband bought a generator in 1992.  Actually, we hadn't used it for the past several years until this year.  We are not running it all the time.  When it does run, it is enough to warm up the house, let us watch the news, keep the fridge running and turn on a few.  I like how the news reports tell people where the shelters are.  The people who really need the shelters probably are not seeing the TV.  

I think that this outage is much more dangerous than the hot weather one.  If people don't keep their houses closed up, a cause of several deaths this past summer, it is easy to cool off with water or head to some place cool.  With the cold, we really need to keep the house warm, especially with our four-month old grandson living with us.  The roads are in pretty good shape now, but with patches of ice here and there, it is more dangerous to travel.

Well, I think the generator is about to run out of fuel again, so I better post this before I lose the connection...