Understanding the Devastating Effects of Ice Storm Damage
Ice storm damage can be the most extreme damage an area has ever seen. Learn more here…
Ice storm damage can be terrible because ice weighs a lot. We have discussed the damage in previous posts but have only included them in their own section. The main cause of damage in these storms is the collapse of different structures, like powerlines or trees. In this post learn more about ice storm damage.
This post is all about ice storm damage.
Extreme Ice Damage
Can Powerlines Freeze?
The first section of this post will be about whether powerlines can freeze. In ice storms, powerlines can be one of the main structures that collapse from the ice. Because ice is so heavy, the wires cannot withstand the weight and fall, bringing power outages to the surrounding areas. Another way the power can fail in ice storms is the temperature.
When power stations experience extreme temperatures that they weren’t made for, they can fail. When this happens, whole cities can go dark, like many in Texas during the 2021 Deep Freeze. The temperatures in Texas during that time period were lower than the current ones in Anchorage, Alaska. It went into the negatives, bringing darkness and shivers to cities like Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and more.
Roof Damage from Ice Storm
Roof damage in ice storms isn’t usually very severe, but it can still be annoying. The ice can freeze onto the roof, and when it thaws out over several days, it drips down on the side of the house. It can leak in through the roof if it is bad enough. Also, as shown in the first image of this post, ice can get on trees or powerlines near the house, and collapse into the house. Depending on the shape of your roof, branches can get stuck up there because they fall from trees under the weight of the ice.
Ice Storm Tree Damage
Tree damage might be the most common type of ice storm damage, with trees practically everywhere storms go and having multiple weak points. One is their branches, especially the smaller ones. The weight of the icy precipitation makes them fall from the tree, and in severe cases like the one pictured above, whole trees can collapse under the weight. Trees can fall onto homes that already suffered from the ice storms and other structures.
You see the branches in every ice storm scene, one example being all the storm photos on this post. After the storm, the ice melts and drips from the trees, giving them some water they need to survive. So even though ice storms can be catastrophic for some trees, they can save others. Ice precipitation, in that way, is very similar to other precipitation types.
Worst Ice Storms in History
In the last section of this post, we will talk about the most recent catastrophic ice event, the 2021 Deep Freeze. It was mentioned earlier in this post, so I will leave out the part about how the power went out. The power crisis was so bad, that 4.5 Million structures lost power, and at least 246 people were killed. Most of the people died either directly or indirectly from the power crisis.
A big and unprecedented killer was carbon monoxide poisoning. People used their cars to warm up because heaters were not working. They didn’t use proper ventilation like keeping your garage open or pointing the back of your car outside so the carbon monoxide wouldn’t become trapped. This event was so big and catastrophic that it deserves a whole post itself, but we will get to that later (no promises).
