12/13/08
Upstate New York Ice Storm

Although it has nothing to do with Ferraris, I wanted to share this story with you.

A couple of days ago, areas of Upstate New York were hit with a severe ice storm and my house was in the middle of it. We lost power at about 10 pm and I decided there was nothing left to do but go to sleep and ride out the storm. I was startled awake two hours later from the sound of cracking, splintering, and a loud thump outside my bedroom window. I tried to go back to sleep, but within minutes a second crack, scratching noises, and thump sent me out of my bed and out of the bedroom. My wife was still awake in the other room, and when we returned to look out our window, we saw a mass of tree branches up against the house!

Nothing had broken through the wall or the roof, but a grove a trees were all leaning precariously towards our house. The freezing rain was falling harder, and the sounds of cracking tree branches was getting more persistent. In the silence of our dirt road, the sound of falling timber was terrifying. Me, my wife, and four year old moved into the living room with the warmth of the wood burning stove to soothe our fears, but the sound of falling trees kept breaking the silence. We kept looking at a huge oak tree that we have plans of cutting down in the spring looming outside our window, and shuddered at the thought of it coming down on our house with us inside.

By 3 am, with another 3-1/2 hours until daylight, another loud crash made us realize we couldn’t take it anymore. We packed up our things and headed for the basement of our house. I had parked my car inside the night before so I would not have to scrape ice in the morning, and now it was our last bastion of safety. A tree could crash into our house, but it would take much more force to get to us down in the basement inside our car. My daughter couldn’t be happier with the excitement of camping in the car with all the blanket and flashlights!

By morning, we saw all the damage and were amazed our house was largely unscathed. All the trees that fell towards the house fell short so the large branches couldn’t do any damage. We have a huge mess to clean up, and the power is not expected to be back on for a couple more days! I fired up a small generator to provide us with some power, and ironically have internet before I have running water from my well!

Having survived such a fearful night, we were met with a beautiful landscape in our neighborhood. The light glistening off all the ice on the trees is like looking at a million chandeliers. In the evening of the full moon, it’s like walking through the set of a Tim Burton movie.

On the second day, when most of the threat of falling trees had subsided, I began the process of cutting apart the fallen trees. Just as I pulled a tree down with my truck, I looked up to see my wife laying on her back in the driveway. She slipped on a patch of ice and looking at her face, something was wrong. Three hours later, we back from the emergency room with a fractured Fibula. Never is there a dull moment when you hang out with us!

Just a reminder, I’m looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

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