Ice Storm 2015: From bad to worse

I don’t care what Luke Bryan thinks, there are times when rain isn’t a good thing. Like, this morning.

We awoke to the sound of falling rain, which normally would be cause for rejoicing in West Texas. However, when temperature has been below freezing for more than 48 hours and the streets are already coated with ice, rainfall brings a feeling of dread. Fortunately, the view from our bedroom window seemed to dispel that notion. We even got a nice view of a hawk checking out the neighborhood from the top of a tree.

It seems like only yesterday that I observed that the ice storm hadn’t caused any damage. Oh, wait…it was yesterday.

So, at 9:44 a.m. this morning (according to the EXIF data from the camera), I took this photo of our back yard desert willow, as reassurance that the freezing rain was still not causing any lasting effects:

Well.

Here’s the photo I took an hour later, at 10:46 a.m. to be exact:

Heartbreaking, huh. Those are some major broken limbs on what was a beautiful tree. Here’s a closeup; avert your eyes if you can’t handle hideousness.

It gets worse; here’s the view from the neighbors’ driveway:

Fortunately, I don’t think they have a vehicle parked in that side of their garage, but this mess is still going to require some major cleanup.

Update (same day)

Once the rain let up and I was able to get closer, I found that the damage was much worse than I thought. The main trunk is split down to below ground level. I’m pretty sure the tree is a total loss. Even if it survives – and desert willows are nothing if not hardy – it won’t be something pretty enough that we’d want to look at it every day.