Life in Nebraska You Gotta Live Somewhere

Christmas Disaster

Christmas is, by tradition, a time of celebration of the birth of Jesus, a time of family, a time of nice things. We do have very special reasons to celebrate this year, though when you look at these Christmas Eve photos, you may at first question our sanity at our giving special thanks on this Christmas Day.

Christmas Photo

Here's a nice Christmas scene featuring our home and backyard with snow on the ground. Wait a minute, something does not look quite right, isn't that a huge tree limb hanging across the main power line and extending onto the back porch roof? Why, yes, it is. Shouldn't there be another power line connecting to the house? Well, there was, until a couple hours before this picture was taken.

You see, overnight December 23-24 we had freezing rain here in Omaha. It wasn't the worst we have had, but it was just a bit more than this old maple tree could handle, and early Christmas Eve afternoon this branch parted ways with the old maple tree, and, as you can see, is now located in a most unwelcome place.

Christmas Disaster

Vicky was in the house sewing, with Vicky and her sewing machine located about five feet beyond where the tree landed on the back porch roof, shaking our home and, as may be expected, creating quite a noise as it came down on our deck and our roof.

In this instant Vicky's pleasant afternoon was transformed into something not so pleasant...she was home alone, our home had suffered unknown damages, there was no electricity, and Omaha was bracing itself for a blizzard! Vicky was very frightened.

Fortunately the tree did not take out our phone service, and Vicky immediately paged me at work, and after a quick conversation with my boss, I left early, and drove home as fast as I dared to on Omaha's winter streets.

It seemed to take forever to make the short drive home, and all kinds of things were going though my mind as I approached our home.

Finally I pulled into our driveway and parked, and headed for the back of the house, and was met by this sight at my usual back door entrance to our house..

Tree On Our House

What a mess! Hmm, couldn't get in the back door, there is a branch holding the door shut (that branch has been cut off now, so we can use the door).

Back to the front door, and Vicky is scared, but relieved to see me, and quickly lets me know we have no electricity. No electricity means we are without heat, and it is now cold, and no way to warm the house, even though we have a gas furnace, it does need electricity for it's ignition.

After a very quick look around for bad things, I get on the phone with OPPD (our Omaha Public Power District) and explain our situation, only to be told it will be quite a while (perhaps a day) to get our power back on. Right or wrong, I was informed there were at that time over 4.500 without electricity in Omaha. However, she promised that our power would be restored at some time.

Another phone call, this time to our insurance company to learn just what I should do to satisfy their requirements for a claim. They said I should do as little as possible until an assessment could be made by their representative, who should be out within two business days, in other words, Monday or Tuesday, because this was on Thursday, Christmas Eve. They also said to get pictures.

Heading outdoors to take the pictures, a glance down the street revealed a potentially source of quicker help than we expected. There were two OPPD (electric company) trucks parked down the road!

Hurrying down the street, and a quick conversation with them, and a promise to be at our house in 5-10 minutes. This sounds a lot better than anticipated.

Of course there are always complications, aren't there?

The power company could not rehang our power line till tree service came out to get the limb off the main power line which we connect to.

The power company was not allowed to check our interior wiring for damage, and we needed to locate a local electrician to do this. Hmm, find an electrician that was available to come out right away on Christmas Eve when there were so very many people that were possibly in immediate need of their services...

Amazingly, everything needed to get our power back was accomplished within about five hours of our Christmas disaster of 2009! Yes, we do have a huge mess in our back yard, our garage has two huge holes in the roof, and a few repairs need to be done to our house.

However, we are safe, we have electricity (and heat) and it is Christmas! Most important of all, I am extremely thankful that the tree limb was not long enough, nor was the wind strong enough, to cause it to land five feet away, where Vicky was sitting at her sewing machine.

Merry Christmas from Vicky and I!