One special Christmas by Dianne Garrett.

I was awakened on December 23, 2004 by loud popping noises and flashes of light at about 3 a.m. It wasn't too long before I also started hearing some unusual cracking noises, and then my husband, Jack, waking me up to see what was happening. We were getting pounded by an ice storm.

My mind quickly went back to when I was a little girl in Wilmington, Ohio remembering a severe ice storm. All those memories flooded me as I looked in amazement out my window. I jolted back to what I was seeing, and realized that since we were trained for disasters, we would probably get a call to deploy in Whitehall.

In the dark house, we fumbled around to find warm clothing, coats, boots, extra layers, flash lights, and anything we could think of to keep ourselves warm and ready for deployment. Jack and I both trained that year for the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). Therefore, knowing what to do in these situations was still fresh. The call came pretty fast. Oops, the garage door couldn't open to get one vehicle out, and the other car and RV were each frozen in a thick box of ice.

A fellow CERT volunteer picked us up and dropped us at our assigned post to manage...the Whitehall Senior Center. Ninety percent of the city was without electricity, but the center and Whitehall Community Park had electricity, so they became shelters. The park housed families, and the senior center housed seniors and special needs. The command post was the fire station.

We quickly put our disaster plan into action for the next five days. Our city made the national news as the hardest hit in the nation. I volunteered a straight 98 hours, and of that time, I only worked in about six hours of dozing time. To say I ran on pure adrenalin is an understatement.

There is not enough space in this blog to share every detail of those five days, but I am sure that if you are reading this, you have your own memories of that Christmas. It will always go down as one of my most blessed Christmases in my lifetime. Helping people and keeping them safe during a very scary time was one of the greatest gifts God could have placed in my life.

From that experience I gained a number of new friends, and we have stayed in touch for the past five years. On December 18 this year, I invited them over to my home for a five year ice storm reunion party. Nine of us had a wonderful time of sharing and remembering that week, and all that transpired. We will forever be connected by the great ice storm of 2004, and reap the reward of friendship for the rest of our lives.

I pray that all of you will have a beautiful holiday season and a happy new year!



Jack Garrett and Scott Lincke setting up cots at the Whitehall senior center.


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Design is copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Bexley Public Radio Foundation. Text and photos are copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Dianne Garrett.