Edena_of_Neith
First Post
This article is decidedly off-topic.
I hope the moderators will allow it to remain for a short time. The disaster that has occurred is worth the words I am writing, unfortunately.
Lexington is a moderately large city in the state of Kentucky, in our United States.
The region is known as the Blue-Grass Region, and is a geographical plateau.
The area is famous for it's rich soil, it's horses, and for Lexington itself.
The trees of Kentucky are tall and lush, for the soil is rich, rainfall is abundant, and erosion is kept in check by the Appalachian Mountains.
In Lexington are trees that have stood since the American Civil War. Trees 150 feet tall. Oak trees, hickory trees, maple trees, tulip trees, ash trees, tall arborvetum - you name it, Lexington has it.
And in the countryside around Lexington, the tall lush trees of the Blue-Grass compliment the rich farmlands, where horses graze behind stately fences amidst the rolling lands.
Those trees, are gone.
Gone.
The entire arboreal ecosystem has been wiped out.
Across all of Lexington, and over all the county it is in, and across at least 4,000 square miles of land, there is mass destruction.
It looks like the Ardennes after the Battles of World War I.
The worst ice storm in the history of Lexington hit on Friday, and it continued through Saturday, Sunday, and Monday without letup, and without mercy.
On Tuesday, the temperature failed to climb above freezing, and heavy clouds kept the ice from melting.
And now, the freezing rain is falling ... AGAIN.
In the center of Lexington, small trees pancaked, breaking at the base and falling in all directions.
Arborvetum lay broken in half.
Other small trees lay crushed, or with their tops laying on the ground, literally bent over double.
Larger trees have been stripped like an angry titan grabbed them in his fist and squeezed.
Skeletal ruins stick up, the major branches all broken off higher up, the small branches ripped off the larger branches.
Along New Circle Road, the freeway that surrounds Lexington, a sea of skeletal wreckage lines the freeway where lush banks of trees once were.
Larger trees stand, all their branches torn away except for one or two last limbs, hanging at impossible angles from the scarecrow ruins.
Oak trees do not break.
Oak trees, are as tough as trees come.
The oak trees, are crushed. Their tops were stoved in like someone sat on them.
Branches that would withstand 100 mile per hour sustained winds are broken, fallen into the lower branches.
In Lexington's historic district were trees that have withstood everything Nature could throw at them for 150 years.
They have withstood hurricane force winds. Endless thunderstorms. Maelstroms of rain and hail. And other ice storms.
The great trees are shattered like a tornado went through.
Huge branches (the kind that would cut your house in half if they fell on it) lay piled up in yards. Others are across the roads. Others lay in the median.
Power lines are covered with 2 inches of ice. Power polls are leaning as tons of trees and ice pull them down.
Half the city remains without power.
Many areas will not have power for over a week.
And now the freezing rain has begun again, and undoubtedly wind is striking those trees still standing.
A human, burdened down with weight, can stumble forward or backwards if pushed.
A tree, burdened with tons of ice, cannot stumble ... it can only break and fall.
My best assessment is that 90% of all of the trees in the 4,000 square mile area, including all of Lexington, have been severely disfigured (heavy damage), stripped with only skeletal ruins remaining (severe damage) or totally destroyed.
1 in 10 trees sustained moderate damage or less, and fewer than 1 in 100 trees sustained little or no damage.
Assuming that Lexington never has another storm of ANY kind, no climatic changes, plenty of good growing weather, and assuming that an all out effort is made to replant lost trees ...
I estimate that it will take 50 to 100 years before Lexington and the surrounding region looks like it did last Thursday.
Since more storms will come (indeed, one is occurring right now, as I said), Lexington will never recover.
The Bluegrass will never recover.
It is the end of an ecosystem.
It is the permanent destruction of something that was very beautiful and very ancient.
And if you think I exaggerate, let someone from the Lexington Area please contradict me!
I wish they would.
I am aghast at what I saw.
I have seen storms, and I have seen damage. But I have NEVER seen destruction of this magnitude. I have never seen a storm cause this level of colossal destruction.
In some hardest hit areas, it actually looks like an atomic blast wave swept through the trees.
The Bluegrass Region was one of the most beautiful in the United States.
I wish to express my sorrow for what has befallen the area.
Edena_of_Neith
I hope the moderators will allow it to remain for a short time. The disaster that has occurred is worth the words I am writing, unfortunately.
Lexington is a moderately large city in the state of Kentucky, in our United States.
The region is known as the Blue-Grass Region, and is a geographical plateau.
The area is famous for it's rich soil, it's horses, and for Lexington itself.
The trees of Kentucky are tall and lush, for the soil is rich, rainfall is abundant, and erosion is kept in check by the Appalachian Mountains.
In Lexington are trees that have stood since the American Civil War. Trees 150 feet tall. Oak trees, hickory trees, maple trees, tulip trees, ash trees, tall arborvetum - you name it, Lexington has it.
And in the countryside around Lexington, the tall lush trees of the Blue-Grass compliment the rich farmlands, where horses graze behind stately fences amidst the rolling lands.
Those trees, are gone.
Gone.
The entire arboreal ecosystem has been wiped out.
Across all of Lexington, and over all the county it is in, and across at least 4,000 square miles of land, there is mass destruction.
It looks like the Ardennes after the Battles of World War I.
The worst ice storm in the history of Lexington hit on Friday, and it continued through Saturday, Sunday, and Monday without letup, and without mercy.
On Tuesday, the temperature failed to climb above freezing, and heavy clouds kept the ice from melting.
And now, the freezing rain is falling ... AGAIN.
In the center of Lexington, small trees pancaked, breaking at the base and falling in all directions.
Arborvetum lay broken in half.
Other small trees lay crushed, or with their tops laying on the ground, literally bent over double.
Larger trees have been stripped like an angry titan grabbed them in his fist and squeezed.
Skeletal ruins stick up, the major branches all broken off higher up, the small branches ripped off the larger branches.
Along New Circle Road, the freeway that surrounds Lexington, a sea of skeletal wreckage lines the freeway where lush banks of trees once were.
Larger trees stand, all their branches torn away except for one or two last limbs, hanging at impossible angles from the scarecrow ruins.
Oak trees do not break.
Oak trees, are as tough as trees come.
The oak trees, are crushed. Their tops were stoved in like someone sat on them.
Branches that would withstand 100 mile per hour sustained winds are broken, fallen into the lower branches.
In Lexington's historic district were trees that have withstood everything Nature could throw at them for 150 years.
They have withstood hurricane force winds. Endless thunderstorms. Maelstroms of rain and hail. And other ice storms.
The great trees are shattered like a tornado went through.
Huge branches (the kind that would cut your house in half if they fell on it) lay piled up in yards. Others are across the roads. Others lay in the median.
Power lines are covered with 2 inches of ice. Power polls are leaning as tons of trees and ice pull them down.
Half the city remains without power.
Many areas will not have power for over a week.
And now the freezing rain has begun again, and undoubtedly wind is striking those trees still standing.
A human, burdened down with weight, can stumble forward or backwards if pushed.
A tree, burdened with tons of ice, cannot stumble ... it can only break and fall.
My best assessment is that 90% of all of the trees in the 4,000 square mile area, including all of Lexington, have been severely disfigured (heavy damage), stripped with only skeletal ruins remaining (severe damage) or totally destroyed.
1 in 10 trees sustained moderate damage or less, and fewer than 1 in 100 trees sustained little or no damage.
Assuming that Lexington never has another storm of ANY kind, no climatic changes, plenty of good growing weather, and assuming that an all out effort is made to replant lost trees ...
I estimate that it will take 50 to 100 years before Lexington and the surrounding region looks like it did last Thursday.
Since more storms will come (indeed, one is occurring right now, as I said), Lexington will never recover.
The Bluegrass will never recover.
It is the end of an ecosystem.
It is the permanent destruction of something that was very beautiful and very ancient.
And if you think I exaggerate, let someone from the Lexington Area please contradict me!
I wish they would.
I am aghast at what I saw.
I have seen storms, and I have seen damage. But I have NEVER seen destruction of this magnitude. I have never seen a storm cause this level of colossal destruction.
In some hardest hit areas, it actually looks like an atomic blast wave swept through the trees.
The Bluegrass Region was one of the most beautiful in the United States.
I wish to express my sorrow for what has befallen the area.
Edena_of_Neith
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