North Shore reporting in. What a night. Hurricane strength winds.

[Paper Roses]

All night winds made the house shake and the noise was fierce. Lost power sometime after 10 PM when I tuned out my lights. I was in the cellar early this AM with a bucket, trying to keep the sump pump water level from going over the top and wrecking my furnace.

My immediate neighbor lost a huge old tree about 2 feet in diameter. Damage to her yard and several houses, plus it blocked the road. No-one has appeared to clear it up yet. The whole town has significant damage. Mostly trees down and loss of power.

Someone has wakened to a pretty messed up roof. There are whole sections of roofing shingles all over the neighborhood. Must have been quite a gust that sent another neighbors BBQ off his porch and across the yard--with tank still attached.

I'll spend some time cleaning up bits of tree limbs and junk from the yard but am happy I had no real damage. 3 years ago, a neighbors tree came down on my house and I was responsible for the clean-up costs and repair.
Doesn't matter that it was not my tree. Fell in my yard so I was the one to pick up the tab and Liberty Mutual was really bad to work with. I have since switched companies.

Again, everyone, check to see if you have insurance coverage for things like tree damage and sump pump coverage. This was a freak storm but it could happen to anyone.

[pipi_k]

1. Amazing the difference!

I'm out in the foothills of the Berkshires.

We had hardly anything all night except for rain.

It's snowing pretty hard now, but the wind (so far) is just a gentle breeze.


It's amazing what a matter of +/- 100 miles can make.


Oh, as for insurance coverage...we went through the same thing here about two years ago with a bunch of rain in the spring. We live on the side of a large hill and thought we were immune to floods. It came down the hill (which is really just a huge aquifer anyway) and across the driveway, bypassing the curtain drains along both sides of the driveway which were still covered with ice...went through the foundation and straight into the cellar/rec room where we have a treadmill, TV, stereo, bookcase, and some other stuff. Must have been eight inches....not a huge flood, but enough to affect our stuff.

Insurance company wouldn't pay because the rain that went into the cellar/rec room didn't get there "directly from the sky". It fell on the ground first.


And the tree thing...a huge Ash got knocked over in a storm 9 years ago. It didn't hit the house, but went the other way, landing on a large pine and some power lines. Insurance company wouldn't pay for cleanup because it didn't hit the house.

Anyway, glad to hear you guys are OK despite the damage.

[Blaukraut]

2. Sounds like our house! Also on the North Shore

We could feel the shaking most upstairs. The sump pump kept tripping the circuit breaker because it was overworked, so hubby had to wade in ankle deep water to turn it back on about 5 times. A section of our wooden fence was broken out by the wind and fell on the neighbor's truck, but no damage.(whew)
The backyard looks like a disaster zone but I'm not in the mood to go out there right now. Our cable, phone, and internet are out still. (hobo-ing off someone's unsecured network atm :hide: )

Being in New England I see a silver lining: At least in wasn't snow that has to be shoveled.

[Paper Roses]

3. My daughter works in Amesbury and it is about a 40 mile drive from here.

The commute must have been awful. The NECN weatherman talked this AM about his taking 6 different routes to get from Haverhill to a clear route to Boston. I just heard there are trees down all over town. What a mess. I hope no-one was hurt through all this.