Well, we are coping with the Great Ice Storm of 2008

[TayTay]

It has not been easy. My house in Northern, MA has been without power since 1 AM Thursday morning. We are making do, so far. But this has been an unbelievable disaster for a lot of people here in the literally Frozen North.

400,000 people in NH have lost power, 260,000 or so are still without it and it may be many more days before it is restored. Over 160,000 people in MA, including my home, are still without power. (Over 390,000 lost power initially in the ice storm.)

This is the worst damage some people have seen in a long, long time. My Mom had home movies of the damage causes by Hurricane Carol in 1954. It's sort of like that was. Really bad. Trees down everywhere, services and power out for days and a lot of damage around.

It has been an interesting weekend. Not fun, not fun at all. I just got back to work today and finally have power to check in.

Oy!

[beachmom]

1. We in the South are sending good thoughts your way up North.

I don't think this story has been adequately reported on nationally. I mostly just saw pretty pictures of the icy trees, and not the continuing disaster that has befallen New England.

Stay warm up there.

[TayTay]

2. Thanks! This is a natural disaster.

The ice leaves a trail of beauty. It shimmers and is utterly gorgeous to look at. And, like so many things in nature, it can be oh so deadly. New England is, as my daughter says, very tree-ish. Well, a lot of those trees just couldn't handle the weight of the ice.

My husband was awakened on Thursday night at about 1 am with these loud sounds outside. It sounded like sporadic gunfire, of all things. crack, crack, crack, and then, every so often, CRACK as something big fell. The trees were just overburdened with ice and were losing branches all over the place.

We had a birch tree, which are light and shallow-rooted trees, fall from our property across the road. We had to wait for the town workers to come out and push it back on our property so cars could get by. This storm also felled huge pine and oak trees. There were blockages everywhere. The ice storm even brought down the utility poles in some places, that's how bad it was.

My brother, 35 miles away in Southern NH, lost power. His water comes from a well on his property and the well is powered by electricity. So, he has no power and no water at his house. He has a pellet-stove, so he can keep the house above freezing and save his pipes from freezing. He also has a lot of seasoned wood stored up at his place. In fact, we will probably meet him at some point and trade him water from our house for some burnable wood from his house. People are making trades like that all over the place.

The temperature Friday night was about 14-16 degrees. It was 18 degrees Saturday night. We kept the water running to keep the pipes from freezing and had fires in the fireplace in front of my house and the woodstove in my room. The danger in that is that you can't burn in the fireplaces continuously because that risks a chimney fire. So, you would run the fires at night, when it was coldest and rest and clean the fireplace and woodstove during the day. Saturday in the daytime was in the 20's. I have never worn so many layers of clothing in my life!

The Worcester Gazette has a great slide show of the damage done in that area. It's like that from the Worcester area, north to Fitchburg and into Southern NH and across east to the shore. The amount of damage is just amazing.

http://www.telegram.com/assets/static/slideshow/2008/stormscenes01/index.html

Edit: Stuff that makes your day: A power utility crew came up from Long Island, NY to help out with restoring the power. My husband flagged the truck down to see when we might get an estimate of when our power will be back on. Maybe today. Maybe. The problem is that you people have too many trees around here, the driver said. They are beautiful, but they are a real problem for the power crews.

Too many trees around. Got it. That is the problem. Thank you Captain Obvious.

[YvonneCa]

10. I'm glad your sense of humor is...

...intact. :7 I cannot even IMAGINE life in a place like your beautiful Massachussetts. It would be so difficult to cope with that kind of winter. Your story is the perfect example of why community is so important...neighbors and family just doing what has to be done whatever it takes. You and your family have my greatest respect. I hope things begin to improve soon for all of you.

[ProSense]

3. Wow,

had no idea that this was happening. You'd think the media would interupt the 24/7 Blagojevich speculation to report on this obviously dangerous situation.

Thanks for the info Tay, and stay warm.

[karynnj]

4. Wow,

That sounds awful. I hope the power is back on by the time you get home. That is an incredible amount of time for it to be out. Take care of yourself.

(We heard so little, we didn't even call our MA student. I just did after seeing this. The college is ok, but the kids who have left the campus say the town is a mess. I'm shocked this wasn't covered much.)

[sandnsea]

5. I thought it was just Maine and up there

I saw pictures on some news site yesterday. Nothing about MA though. I was trying to think of any helpful hints from when we used to have especially bad blasts in MT. Got any of those warmers you put in your pockets, or battery-heated socks? One time everybody lost power and we were sitting at the office in triple socks and mittens and hats and down coats, fun times, lol. Those are the times when it's nice to heat or cook with gas. Maybe you can check into a hotel for the duration?? Brrr. :hug:

[TayTay]

6. No, it's mostly MA and NH that have the problem.

There was a collision of two weather fronts over the middle section of New England, where the MA and NH borders meet. This meant rain, but also a sort of flash freeze for the rain that collected in the trees. It was very odd to go out Friday morning and see dry roads, dry pavement and no ice on the ground and then look up and see all the trees encased in ice. It was like the freeze was selective and only affected things a few feet above the ground.

Today is a great day, relatively speaking. We are having a warm spell through tomorrow. Daytime temps are into the high 50's. This is great as everyone can give their fireplaces a rest and clean them out. It will only drop to the high 30's tonight, which is a big relief.

Scenes from the storm: We lost a shallow-rooted birch tree when it couldn't take the weight and fell across the road. We were out Friday morning surveying the damage and checking in with neighbors to make sure everyone was okay. We were standing by this birch tree, just marveling at the ice on it. It was encased in ice from top to bottom. Anyway, another neighbor appears at the top of the street and sees us. He doesn't wave or say anything until he gets very close. Then he looks up at us, looks at the birch and the street and says, "hey, did you know you got a tree blocking the road? Might want to take care of that." LOL! Yankee humor.

People don't outright ask for help directly up here in the Frozen North. They imply they need it and wait for the offer for a trade. It's actually interesting to read the signals. "I have some seasoned wood, you have water. Geez, isn't this situation awful. So-and-so had a tree come through the ceiling in their son's room. Just missed the kid, thank God. Hey, I can take some of that wood off your hands. Hey, I can give you some water. Okay, I'll get my truck and load up some wood, you get something to carry the water in." People "make do" without much of a fuss about it. "How are you today?" "Making do, 'bout you?"

I can't go to a hotel. We have to babysit the pipes. The damage from burst pipes would be horrendous. So, we stay and "make do." Thank God for insurance.

More pictures from the Lawrence Eagle Tribune: http://www.eagletribune.com/icestorm08

[sandnsea]

7. Montana was a bit different

Everybody helps somebody else, worst first and on from there. The subtle trading is interesting, sounds like what I've read in novels, etc. Montanans are more of a pass it on kind of people, or will just show up, do what needs doing, and leave. Preferably without you knowing they did it. That happened several times a day after we lost our house in a fire right before Christmas. That's one of the things I liked best about living there. There wasn't a lot of jabbering behind people's backs. If you were going to tsk tsk, you better be prepared to get off your hiney and do something about it.

How did our grandmothers do it. And all those kids on top of it. Yikes!

Hang in there!

[TayTay]

9. New Englanders will find a way to help

and, inevitably, a way to share humor about what is going on. I simply can't picture a situation, no matter how bad, without humor. I think that is our coping mechanism up here. That and the incredible help that people give to one another and then shrug it off. "Ah, no problem hon. I always carry a chainsaw, extra gasoline, seasoned wood and some water in my truck. You know, for visiting Grandma." LOL!

My brother saw crews up from Pennsylvania and North Carolina around the Worcester area. That help is much appreciated. My brother was cooking up the stuff that had started to defrost from the fridge and freezer and then went looking for people to give it to. "No problem hon, it was going to go bad anyway. Here, you take it." (Ah, well, ah, thanks! I mean if it was going to go bad anyway, then I might as well feed it to my kids. LOL!)

Our problem is, as the New York guy said, we have too many trees. Gotta work on that for next time. LOL!

[YvonneCa]

8. I'm so sorry. I saw pictures of the downed trees...

...last night and was hoping all the DUJK New Englanders were doing okay. :grouphug:

[Island Blue]

11. Wow, Tay. I had no idear.

(I mean I knew y'all had a bad winter storm, but didn't realize just how bad. :-() Stay safe and as warm as possible. I wish I could send our warm weather up your way - it's 66 degrees here today which is unseasonably warm. Take care.

[Mass]

12. Sorry to hear that. Here in Belmont we were relatively spared, but

I have driven this week-end from Boston to Springfield on Rte 2, and it was amazing. When you see the trees broken all along the road, you indeed think about a wind storm and not an ice storm. Friday afternoon, all the area in central Massachusetts was without power (not sure at what stage they are now). At some point, we gave somebody some gas because he was without gas and the pumps were not working. Some power lines were on the road, forcing us to go to make a huge detour to go back to Amherst.

I honestly had no idea that an ice storm could do damages like that.

[Luftmensch067]

13. Everyone else on the thread has an excuse!

I LIVE here and I had no idea! So sorry, Tay -- hope the power comes back soon! I was home with a bad cold from Thursday night on and kind of not paying attention so this was the first I heard.

As I was reading your account, a friend came over to my desk at work and told me her sister lives in Derry, NH and they were told there'd be no power 'til after CHRISTMAS! Hope that will turn out to be a conservative estimate!!! Her sister's husband found a generator for sale down in Weymouth ($4000) and drove all the way down to get it and now they have power again, but none of her neighbors do. She's agonizing because she can't afford to have EVERYONE come over and shower and warm up their pets, etc., etc. all at the same time and if she asks one family, everyone else will feel bad.

I do like what you're saying about community and people helping each other/trading, etc. I think and hope we'll be seeing more and more of that in the years to come.

Take care of yourselves and stay warm!!!

[TayTay]

14. We have POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My husband just called. We got power back on a little while ago. Thank you to the crew who worked so long and the workers from Long Island who assisted in getting the lines back up.

Power is good. Really good.

[sandnsea]

15. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, power is really good. :hug:

[Luftmensch067]

16. Hurray!!!!!

I'm glad you get to go home knowing things will be better!!!

[YvonneCa]

17. ...

...:woohoo: Great news. :)

[karynnj]

18. Congratulations!

[MH1]

22. Yay!!!

I'm glad you've got power back but sorry you had to go through that! I hope you can get everything warmed up fast and fix anything that was damaged. :grouphug:

[MBS]

24. oh, I'm SO glad to hear this. I knew about the initial outages, but

like Luftmensch, I hadn't realized that the power outages had gone on so long.
For everyone else, there's a story about this in this morning's (12-16)Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/12/16/a_slow_struggle_out_of_darkness/
For those non-Massachusetts folks, Harvard is a town west of Boston (NOT Harvard University, but a separate town on the western fringes of the Boston suburbs)

[globalvillage]

19. There you are.

I was worried about you.

[BlueIris]

20. I feel for you, Tay. We had four unexpected inches here last night, which is enough to shut down

an Oregon city this size. I was almost in an accident because of it and our phone was FUBAR for much of last night. It's freezing. Not what you're going through, of course, but it's frustrating as hell for us.

Thinking good thoughts for you and yours.

[Blaukraut]

21. Good, you're ok!

I was thinking about you the last few days. Our town overall lost power, too except for our block, so we were spared. The only thing we lost was cable, phone, internet. That was no big deal. The sump pump died, too, so at one point we had a foot of water in the cellar, and the neighbor's tree lost half of its branches in our yard. Luckily nothing fell on any cars or houses - at least in our immediate neighborhood.

Damn trees!

[ladym55]

23. I've been following this story on-line

It was a beaut. Ice storms do so much damage. I'm glad you're okay and the power is back on, but man, it's rough to be without power when it is that cold.

And I'm SO glad that the guy from LI explained about the problem with the trees!! :)

[TayTay]

25. There are a number of videos at YouTube of the disaster

Put in "Holden," "Ice Storm" for search terms and you will see a lot of home videos of this event.

Ahm, about that attitude: Well, nature has been trying to kill us in New England for generations. It hasn't succeeded yet. Ah, this attitude and a certain innate desire to get in a car, hold a video camera and drive around icy streets with power lines and trees strewn all over the road, seems to have served some people well. I do not recommend driving under a broken tree branch that looks to have a power wire entangled in it with a metal roofed car, but apparently, others feel differently.

Anyway, there are some amazing videos out there of this disaster. I am not linking to them because of the audio, but the actual footage of neighborhoods are amazing.

From the http://www.telegram.com/article/20081216/NEWS/812160617/1116/NEWSLETTERS08">Worcester Telegram and Gazette in a story about workers from other locations coming to MA to help restore power:

Last night, the Auburn Mall parking lot was a sea of power company trucks with license plates from North Carolina and Missouri and guys from California and Michigan — 40 from Public Service Electric and Gas in New Jersey alone. Many of the imported workers were impressed by what Jeff Baker, a Seattle lineman, called “that good northeastern hospitality” shown by people in cold dark homes grateful to see someone with a funny accent who was going to restore their power.

Doug Green, his fellow IBEW Local 77 lineman, said they all got a free meal at The Grand Slam Café yesterday. “We tried to tip them and they wouldn’t take it. It’s nice to be appreciated.”

Even an electrician named “Jim Bob” from Los Angeles got the free meal, although the café people told him he wouldn’t get another one if he returned with his N.Y. Yankees hat. While the workers, a number of whom were brought in by BBC Electric, a Joplin, Mo., contractor, were warned to take precautions against spreading the Asian longhorned beetle, those who repaired damage from Hurricanes Ike and Gustav in Louisiana and Texas were grateful not to have to deal with “alligators, snakes and mosquitoes,” Mr. Green said.

Edward Moore, a Pike Electric area supervisor from St. Mary’s, Maryland, said it’s hard being away from his wife and three children four days a week for the past 15 years “but I know it’s part of the job. I still like coming out and turning people’s power on — just the satisfaction of it.”

[Mass]

26. Happy to see you have power again. I feel so sorry for people in Central Mass

who have to deal with the snow now, with still no power.

[TayTay]

27. I know.

2 of my brothers are among them. They are also looking for work.

Sometimes, everything just sort of sucks. We endure.