Southeast Missouri Child Baby Senior Photography | Stephanie Greenwell Photography

I’ve been slacking on uploading more images from the ice storm…SHOOT ME!!Well, I’m only attaching a few today and hopefully can catch up with it this weekend. As I’ve said in previous posts, clean up has been underway and the evidence shows with chopped trees, limbs, sticks, you name it, making their new home on the side of roads. Trust me, that are a lot of them!! But, it’s somewhat sad to see. The skyline in our neighborhood looks bare and ragged, with the trees that are still left standing.

And we did get our yard cleaned up last Friday and we had to have seven, count ‘em, SEVEN, trees cut down!! For some reason, it broke my heart and I have to admit, I shed a few tears. But, we will get to plant new ones this spring.

Again, I personally want to thank all the hard workers for their continued efforts to restore power to those who are into their 3rd week without it. I’m continually updating the recognition of companies who have been working here, so if you know of any company I missed, just let me know. I’ll gladly add them to the list!

Now, on to more images. Have a great week and come back soon!

More from my yard [Thurs., Jan. 29]

Debris in our yard and power line workers in the background [Fri., Jan. 30]

Another look up Corrine on the 3rd day–not as pretty! [Fri., Jan. 30]

No working lights on the I-55 overpass

Hey y’all! (That’s Bootheel slang for, “Hi! How are you doing?”)

Man, I have had so many hits on my blog this week! I’ve been emailed, called, stopped at stores, and even a message arrived in a bottle on the banks of the Mississippi River(no, really, because Internet and phone lines were down!) about the images I’ve posted of the Bootheel Blizzard. I’m glad that so many of you have had a glimpse of what we went through here, if you didn’t get to witness it first-hand. The last ice storm to hit here was in 1978(or 1979, I’m not sure because I heard 1978 and 1979). I was told by a man that lived through that one that this storm was worse. So if you lived here then but don’t now, maybe that could give you something by which to gauge this ice storm.

As I mentioned in my last post, clean up has been underway and great progress is being made. Except for my yard, but that’s another story. We Bootheel-ians are quite resilient. The businesses are up and running again and the power trucks are dwindling by the day. Last Wednesday(January 28), we drove around town and I documented various locations and businesses. It really was like a ghost-town, except people were scurrying around everywhere, so I guess it really doesn’t make it a ghost town. Oh nevermind. It just looked strange that no businesses were opened, except one convenience store. There was no power, no gas, but there was a line of people waiting to get inside to buy whatever they could off the shelves. Now, that’s business as usual!

Okay, I’m attaching images from around town during the day and a few from night, which aren’t very clear because I couldn’t expose for such darkness. But you’ll get the idea that it was dark. By the way, none of the images that I’m posting are edited, with the exception of the frozen, freaky tree. They are just straight out of the camera(SOOC, or SOTC, or SOOTC, whatever you choose. Who cares.)

Oh, by the way, I didn’t really get a message in a bottle. Actually, the message was packed in a floating cardboard box, but since cardboard is not waterproof, I never received it.

Going south on N. 6th St.

Traveling west on Hwy. 84

Look at the line of people, cars filled the parking lot!

Pizza Hut took a beating–that pole ended up breaking!

Going east on Hwy. 84, heading up the overpass

Looking south at I-55 from the overpass

A view of some of the power trucks at Pilot’s

Going east to Caruthersville–Check out all the downed poles! I think a lot of these ending up breaking.

Heading west back to Hayti

The line of people waiting on gas, yes they were in the right lane on the highway waiting!

This is the hospital emergency entrance. Notice the cones where power lines snapped and damaged vehicles and even an ambulance!

Another east view of our house–not very pretty, but thank God, that big tree never split!

West view of Hwy. 84 west of railroad tracks

Pitch black in Hayti–curfew imposed from dusk to dawn

More images to come soon

**Read Part I and Part II of my journal or just click on “Ice Storm ’09″ on the right in Categories**

By now, you all know that we’ve had a crazy ice storm, like, so-crazy-it-should-be-in-a-straightjacket kind of crazy. But thankfully, life as we know it is returning back to the normal day-to-day operations. Most of the area has had power restored, but there are still plenty of power trucks around here. People are cleaning up the messes in their yards and there are just miles of piles of limbs, trees, brush, you name it, along the streets. And so I give another shout-out to the city and county workers who will be cleaning up these messes because you guys have a lot of work of ahead of you too.

And to those businesses who have been so helpful in cleaning up, a big thank you to you too. Especially those who aren’t price gouging. I have heard of a few astronomical price quotes for clean-up and tree-trimming and it’s just sad. I understand supply and demand even though I loathed economics in college, but c’mon, let’s not rob people. Like I said, it was only a couple of quotes, but for the most part, most have been reasonable, some even doing work for free! Free is always good, especially when it comes from the goodness of the heart.

With that said, I will leave you with more images from around Hayti. God Bless.

Hayti City Park

Going North on N. 4th St: Hayti High School, Homes, Cemetery

Drooping wire on west side of Hayti Jr. High and view of Woodlawn Cemetary in the background

West side of Hayti Jr. High behind tree

East View of Cleveland from N. 4th St.: Cemetery on Left, Hayti Jr. High on Right

Hayti Mathis Elementary

Cleveland St. between N. 4th St. and Gayoso

This wire in the middle is completely frozen straight in the water!

A shot of an ice-covered wire through my sunroof as we drove under it!

Kristina Reed St.

More images to come

**Read Part I and Part II of my journal**

I took the following picture on Wednesday morning. There was something so edgy, so wicked, so beautiful about the way the limbs were frozen, like the tree stuck one of its limbs in an electric socket and all the limbs just jumped straight out! (Except we know that didn’t happen because there was no electricity, and well, trees can’t stick their limbs into electrical sockets. Nevermind.)

Anyways, I processed this image in hopes that I could capture its funkiness and spunk. I wanted some of the color to pop in the background to give some contrast to the stark-white backdrop.

And on another note, today I had the most hits on my site in one day: 198!! Yeah, baby, I’m breaking records. Better get the gold medal and podium ready! And did you notice my new ‘favicon’? It’s the little icon hanging out next my address in the, well, address bar. I finally figured out how to do it tonight, so me and my new pal, Favicon, are now rolling with the homies in the blogosphere!

Now, I’m off to bed. I’ll probably have a nightmare about a tree gone mad, with its wicked, pointy limbs grabbing at me. I seriously have some crazy dreams, so I’m preparing early and I will have axe in hand!