Two years ago this past January, an ice storm rolled through central Wisconsin, coating the university beef farm — where my wife and I lived at the time — with a healthy layer of ice. As a result, tree limbs snapped under the ice load, snapping the powerlines headed to the farm. Temperatures then fell below zero.
The heating elements in the outdoor cattle waterers were electric, and the only thing you can do if the power goes out is close up the doors on the waterers and hope the power comes back on before they freeze up. In this case, they froze. Once the power came back on, we bucketed hot water from the barn to each waterer and poured it over the valve and supply lines until each one was functional again.