AccuWeather's Tony Laubach reported live from Illinois as cleanup began after a destructive ice storm across the Midwest.
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00:00AccuWeather meteorologist Tony Lovac earlier was able to show us, he's in
00:05Marion, Illinois by the way, just how much ice accumulated on tree branches
00:11but you can think putting it onto power lines as well. Yeah Tony, it's been a big
00:16problem out there. I know this is familiar territory for you as well so
00:20welcome back to one of your former homes but quite a mess out there. Yeah it is
00:26definitely quite a mess out here Jeff. In fact I've been talking with some of
00:29old co-workers of mine here who worked at one of the local TV stations, some
00:33weather friends of mine, and we were reminiscing about some of the ice events
00:36that I worked here during my five-year stint here. Obviously nothing compared to
00:40this or the 2009 storm which has been referenced by quite a few people I've
00:44talked to but this certainly the biggest one in a decade plus and was certainly
00:48bigger than anything I saw my five years out here and it has definitely left its
00:52mark. We showed you last time some of the tree branches on the ice on the tree
00:57branches there. Wasn't brave enough to grab any power lines to show you that
01:01but you can get an idea of just how much ice has fallen in this area and we've
01:05had that with over 37,000 power outages but in addition to the power outages
01:10it's been the tree damage. Check out some of this stuff. This is out of the
01:13Harrisburg area. Really this was scenes that were playing itself out all across
01:17southern Illinois. Some massive branches, lots of it. It was kind of a mix of
01:21either some of the big pine trees that still had the needles so you could put
01:25more weight on those. A lot of those really tipping over from the root that
01:28give you an idea of how heavy this ice gets when you start piling on half an
01:32inch or more of that ice on there and then a lot of the tree branches you see
01:36in these areas where you see a big massive tree and then just underneath it
01:40literally a nest of branches and limbs that have broken off and that is still
01:44happening. In fact standing here I can still occasionally hear a branch or two
01:48come down and some of the tree or you know some of the heavier wooded areas
01:52nearby. That is going to be an issue which is continuing to lead to power
01:55outages for folks. There's obviously huge inconveniences and for some it's just
02:00minor annoyances having to clean off their car.
02:02I don't like snow but I don't like this part. I don't like the cold. I don't like the work that goes with it.
02:10I came out here yesterday evening and cleaned this off really good. It's perfect and I thought it was going to be over but then it's covered all up again.
02:22And he was one of the smarter ones. I talked to another guy who was getting
02:26out for the first time and that half an inch of ice was glazed over his entire
02:31car. In fact I sent in some video I don't know if you'll see it online or
02:35something. He literally literally as I went to film him start to scrape his
02:38his windshield his scraper broke. So he was he was chiseling a lot of that by
02:43hand. So big issues really for a lot of folks here starting with the minor
02:48inconveniences all the way to the dangerous issues with the power and
02:51Ameren saying it may be tomorrow night before a lot of these residents see
02:54power again. All right Tony thanks for your reporting. This is some cold air moving
02:58in for those who don't have electricity. In fact there are lake effect snow bands
03:01firing off right now off of the Finger Lakes. Just the right wind orientation
03:06there and that's just a sign of the cold air that's moving in here for those who
03:09don't have electricity. Cold times here. Tony thanks for that report. See his
03:13breath there. As we take a look at what's going on into the mid-atlantic states
03:17the final stages of this winter storm are moving through with our upper level
03:22low pressure system.