Bryan and Donalee Thomas of Butler Township and their son, Benjamin, watched the lights in their 100-year-old farmhouse flicker a few times before going to bed during the storm Thursday night.

Awake at 3 a.m. Friday, they heard the eerie continuous cracking of ice-laden trees in their woods before a loud bang caused them to look out the window.

“There was a big blue glow,” Bryan said. “It was the transformer laying in the middle of the road. We called 911.”

Township workers arrived to put some cones around the burnt transformer and wires, which remained untouched in the middle of the road all day Friday.

Multiple motorists dodged the cones and circumvented the mess all day long.

“People are driving over the wires, and they're still attached to my house,” Thomas said. “It's crazy.”

The family also lost a wide variety of trees in their yard, which snapped under the weight of the ice and snow served up by Winter Storm Avery.

Hickory, maple, chestnut, white pine and forest pine met their demise in the family's yard.

“A lot of trees came down, but nothing hit the house,” Thomas said.

The couple stayed warm overnight Thursday caveman style.

“It wasn't too bad last night,” Thomas said. “We've got two dogs.”

A camping heater fueled by small propane bottles kept the family warm Friday, and Donalee's contraption that converts a car cigarette lighter to an electric plug provided some luxury, albeit in the passenger's seat of their SUV.

“My wife was able to curl her hair, so she was all excited,” Thomas said.

A gas stove in the home allowed the couple to heat up water to wash up and cook a limited number of food items.

They could not use their shower or flush their toilet because their wastewater is pumped 800 feet up a hill to the public sewer mainline.

The Thomases welcomed their daughter, Julianne, to their home after her power went out on Autumn Drive and the interior temperature sank to 40 degrees.

“Everyone is huddled around the propane heater,” Thomas said.

Even though the weather threw the Thomas family a curve, they know it could always be worse.

“I saw those pictures from California last week, so if this issue is the worst I have to go through, a couple days of no heat in the winter, that's just an inconvenience,” he said.

The Rev. William Gilligan, pastor at Nixon United Methodist Church in Penn Township, did his best on Friday morning to stay warm with his wife, Amanda, and young son and daughter at his home on Crestmont Drive.

“We were cuddled up under blankets and started a fire in the fireplace to try to keep warm for a while,” Gilligan said.

They used bottled water to brush their teeth, but had no easy way to heat up water for washing up.

“I didn't shave,” Gilligan said. “It was too uncomfortable.”

His children, ages 8 and 10, had their own concerns in the 19th-century surroundings.

“They were more concerned with not having access to the Internet and what they were going to do when the batteries to their (electronic) toys died,” Gilligan said.

So Mom, Dad, the kids and the family dog hopped into the car and headed for the church on Airport Road, where the power was still on.

“The kids are charging their devices and so am I,” Gilligan said.

The family opened the church to others without power who needed a place to warm up and use the bathroom.

“Don't take things for granted,” Gilligan said.

While he didn't know Friday evening what his family would do if the power remained out for a few days, he praised the police, firefighters and linemen and women working around the clock to restore power.

“We're definitely thankful for whoever is out there working, because it's bitter cold and they're out there in it trying to keep us all warm,” Gilligan said.

He said the church will be open during the day for as long as the power is out, and all will be welcomed to come in and get warm.