An ice storm ‘pro’ learns to chill out

BRANSON MO NEWS:

Last weekend’s ice storm in Dodge City was the fifth ice storm I’ve gone through in the past 25 years.I’ve become sort of a “professional” at going through them.We’ll recap the storms I’ve gone through in the past, because, well this column needs to take up quite a bit of space and by recapping the other storms, it explains how I’ve become an expert in dealing with with these things.Besides, my column, my rules.The first ice storm was in 1993 in El Dorado, Arkansas. This community is about 15 miles north of the Louisiana state line.My wife and I, along with my oldest daughter, who was 1, lived in a mobile home just outside of town. When the ice storm hit, we lost power quickly due to ice buildup on trees, but we had our daughter to care for so she got more attention during that time than any other 1-year-old ever got.The problem in that storm wasn’t the power going off, it was the tree limbs coming down, especially the one tied up with a downed power line which swung down and slammed directly into the mobile home siding. …