House of Blue Flowers in Winter 2015 02

Ice clings to the branches of the trees in an image taken by Ranger Ricardo while standing in the middle of the road looking southeast, toward the House of Blue Flowers, built in 1928 on a hill overlooking the ALCOA South Plant, located in the Rock Garden Community of the City of Alcoa in Blount County, Tennessee.

On February 8th of 2015, It began to rain. Temperatures fell and caused the rain to change over to sleet. Temperatures fell some more. By nightfall, everything was bound in black ice frozen hard as metal in the single digit cold accompanied by winds up to 30MPH. The ice broke dead wood off and scattered it all over the ground.

The following day, late in the afternoon, Ricardo's hastily taken pictures depict the beauty of this dangerous climate which paralyzed Blount County, as well as a large area surrounding the Smokies, leaving 20,000 folks without power within the greater Maryville/Alcoa metro area. By the time this image was taken, hard work by the road crews had all the inner city routes clear.