It does things like this:
While we were lucky in this storm -- the brunt of it missed us and we only got about 1/4" of ice (roughly 6.5 mm) -- I have family near the Iowa/Missouri state line, and they're pretty bad off. When a falling tree took out their electric service, it sent a surge through the house. They will most likely have to have to the entire house rewired, along with replacing all of their appliances
However, about 5 years ago, we did have an ice storm of terrible proportions, coating everything with 2"-3" of ice (5-7.6 cm). I literally couldn't count to 10 seconds that night without hearing a tree branch come crashing down, and the sky was constantly being lit up with green flashes from all the transformers being blown. I never knew electricity could make so many pretty colors until my neighbor's 100 amp service was lying in the yard, sputtering and sparking in a deadly rainbow of ice and electrons. It was so bad here that the trains stopped running! (and trains will plow through weather that'll stop a football game) The next day, 911 dispatch reported that they received more calls in one night than they usually receive in an entire month.
I'd rather get a foot of snow than an inch of ice.
