Jillio and Hear Again - Thank You.
There are still parts of this state in the dark. From what I was told, It began with 1.3 million people without power and now that the electric is slowly being restored in various parts of this state - It has went down to 545,000 people without power.
Horselover - This was the first time I've went out w/o electric for 5 days. I've been through the winter storm and/or ice storm couple of times before. Usually it'd be like a day or two without power at the most which was not a big deal to me but now that I've went through this for 5 days, It was really getting to me. I felt like I was losing my sanity. For the first few days, I was staying at various places (friends, etc) to stay warm, to take a hot bath and have a good meal. So, and then the last night - I was dressing myself up with bunch of layers of clothes and bunches of blankets wrapped around me. Amazingly, I was warm all over and my nose was the only thing that felt cold.
The kids were in good hands during this time since they were staying with their grandparents. Of course, I had to check on them on a constant basis to keep up to date since I had to work and to check on my place as much as I could.
This morning, when the electric was restored - I was jumping up and down for joy because I was like -- Finally, It's about time!
Lucia - Yes, That is why I always have a lot of canned foods around and non-perishable items. I learned my lesson way back then in 2000 when there was a F4 Tornado that hit by. I was not totally prepared back then. Since the ice storm came by this time - I was more than prepared with the canned foods, so and on.
The biggest challenge during this time was basically trying to stay warm because the temperatures were really cold during the nights.