On the Saturday night that the storm hit Mississippi, we had dripped our faucets for the temperature drop and stockpiled flashlights, groceries, extra blankets. By 11:30 p.m., my husband was pulling on his rain boots and heading outside to tarp our heating unit: 'A branch has already fallen onto a power line in our backyard,' he told me. Three hours later, I was shaken awake. 'Mom, I think a tree just fell on our house,' my 13-year-old son said. I stumbled around, looking for any sign that tree branches had breached my home. As I searched, I saw the pine tree behind our home drop a giant branch into the neighbor's yard. Crack. Boom. For the next six or so hours, every few minutes, we heard tree branches cracking, encased in ice and barreling to the ground like meteorites, exploding on contact with the earth. At each crack, we thought, Will this be the one that hits our house' Or our neighbors'' Will we lose our giant oak tree' Under the weight of five blankets and three sleeping...
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