Stay warm, New England curlies!

Kaia · 12-12-2008, 09:24 AM

I just read about the ice storm leaving a million people without power. Yikes! Hope everyone is safe!

GuardianB · 12-15-2008, 12:40 PM

Thanks Kaia. Is this really the only post about this subject on the board? That is really disappointing. So much for the NH/ME populace. Guess we are feeling a little forgotten up here. I went 3 full days with no power in sub freezing temps. People still without power. Police directing traffic at intersections at everyhour of the night...thank you police. Fire departments helping with flooding basements and fallen trees...thank you firefighters. Public Service utilities working 18 hour days trying to connect circuits and avoid power surges as grids come back online...thank you PSNH. Gov Lynch calling for a State of Emergency to get some help...thanks gov. Many of these people going out to help still don't have power at their own homes.

Online and media talk of Ice Storms...not much I heard was mentioned from those who had power.

Kaia · 12-15-2008, 12:49 PM

I can't imagine! Do most people up there have gas heating or at least fireplaces? How do you stay in your house if there's no heat? Sorry if I'm sounding ignorant, but no power in freezing temps doesn't sound like habitable living conditions to me!

GuardianB · 12-15-2008, 12:57 PM

Many have wood fireplaces so there is that. Others have propane stoves which are sometimes self run but others are electric started burners and forced hot water or air where the fuel is propane/oil/natural gas so without that electricity to start and run it they (like me) are out of luck. Those that had or got generators for supplying their homes were lucky but then those are powered by gasoline. Gas pumps are powered by what...electricity nowadays so lines and availability became high demand and stress levels rose.

My family Friday night huddled up and were okay in our house at 53degrees. Sat and Sunday though we split between 2 friends who hadn't lost power or had gotten it back earlier at least. Sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor, while the food we had in the freezer thawed and probably now refreezes so it will have to be thrown out.

Batteries and Coleman heaters/stoves went off the shelves like hotcakes. Generators that were in stock at Home Depot and Lowes are now gone. Some people driving 4 hours 1-way to pick one up at sometimes $800 a pop.

badgercurls · 12-15-2008, 01:08 PM

Oh my gosh! That sounds terrible! Do you have power yet, GB? I'm glad you were able to find friends to stay with; I can't imagine having to live without heat in this type of weather.

All of you affected by this are in my thoughts - stay warm and safe!

CurlyHairedFarmer · 12-15-2008, 01:23 PM

Lucky for me, my area didn't get hit too hard. My hometown did but my parents said they were all the fine and the farm still had power.

Oddly enough, we were up to 39 degrees today. Thats Maine for ya!

spring1onu · 12-15-2008, 03:21 PM

I often wonder what we'll do if we get a horrible storm and lose power for days on end. We have a fireplace, but honestly it's more for show than heat. The wood burns down so quickly and really sucks the heat out of the rest of the house. We have baseboard water heat so I wonder about those freezing too.

When we lived in FL and had hurricanes I knew how to get by without power, but in the cold I honestly don't know what we'd do and that scares me.

Hope everyone is ok.

Suburbanbushbabe · 12-15-2008, 08:13 PM

One of my team is still without power. The other just got his power this morning, but now has to deal with the end-results of a flooded basement - furnace and water heater broken.

MizKerri · 12-15-2008, 08:25 PM

My husband and I were lucky in that we only lost power for about 5 hours very early Friday morning. My inlaws are still without electricity, have no heat and no water.They're not expected to get it back until Wednesday, so they're staying with other family members right now.

Some of my co-workers are staying in hotels because their towns are still powerless.

Hropkey · 12-15-2008, 08:53 PM

Oh gosh, I didn't hear about this! One of my good friends lives in New Hampshire, I hope she's okay.

GuardianB · 12-16-2008, 05:46 AM

I got power back early Monday morning. Monday was a warm day where the temps got up to nearly 60 so that would have helped some. My grandfather is still without power. My mom had it back on Sat night but then lost it again on Sunday night. Grandfather is staying with her. Some school districts have already closed for this week knowing that there is too many roads unable to be accessed due to fallen trees and downed power lines. People literally were almost stranded in some situations. My Dad works for PSNH and my brother is a volunteer firefighter so I'm getting stories. Dad has gotten about 3 hours a sleep per day since Friday. Quick poll here at work shows that in my office 7 of 10 people still do not have power. Part of our job this week asked of us is to go door to door to see who has power and if they need anything.

Some people with power need to TURN OFF THE GRISWALD CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. Have a little empathy people.

wavycurly40+ · 12-16-2008, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hropkey

Oh gosh, I didn't hear about this! One of my good friends lives in New Hampshire, I hope she's okay.

New Hampshire was very hard hit. I expect many still have no power there. Here in Mass. many of us got it back within 4 days, but the more remote areas may take much longer. A lot of people have left their homes and are staying with friends or in emergency shelters or hotels. It helps that it got warmer on the 3rd day, and that many of us have wood stoves that heat efficiently....... of course many of us also have wells with electric pumps, so no power = no water.

Ice storms are pretty freaky. Hearing trees come crashing down all night long is weird and scary.

Kaia · 12-16-2008, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spring1onu

When we lived in FL and had hurricanes I knew how to get by without power, but in the cold I honestly don't know what we'd do and that scares me.

I know, Spring, I just can't imagine. Yeah, here in FL it gets hot and humid, and there's mosquitoes everywhere. If you lose power for a longer while, things start to smell musty. But dang, at least we're just sweating, not freezing to death!

spring1onu · 12-16-2008, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaia

I know, Spring, I just can't imagine. Yeah, here in FL it gets hot and humid, and there's mosquitoes everywhere. If you lose power for a longer while, things start to smell musty. But dang, at least we're just sweating, not freezing to death!

I guess the upside is we could put the contents of our freezer in a cooler outside and we wouldn't lose any food.

In FL I knew to not to keep much in the freezer during hurricane season. After our first hurricane and we lost everything..lesson learned!

DEL2C · 12-16-2008, 09:17 AM

Luckily we got power back after 2 days, it's been really rough for folks in New England! Thanks Kai for starting a thread that's very sweet

GuardianB · 12-16-2008, 10:12 AM

There are still 117,000 people without power in NH. Nearly 80,000 in Mass and then 30,000+ in York Country Maine alone.

DEL2C · 12-16-2008, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuardianB

There are still 117,000 people without power in NH. Nearly 80,000 in Mass and then 30,000+ in York Country Maine alone.

This is the worst ice storm in New England since 1988, and we have some more stormy weather coming tomorrow! This is NOT good......

CurlyHairedFarmer · 12-16-2008, 12:26 PM

The ice storm of 98 was far worse here in Maine than this one.

xcptnl · 12-16-2008, 12:55 PM

Just got my power back after being out since Thursday around 11ish. I had 3rd day hair - not on purpose though. Having a well can be good but bad when your power goes out - no water! FUGLY!

GuardianB · 12-16-2008, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CurlyHairedFarmer

The ice storm of 98 was far worse here in Maine than this one.

98 was really, REALLY bad for I think a smaller population. The devastation that it did was far greater but it did not cover the larger area and shear numbers of homes this one does. Public Service of NH has admitted this one is the worst in their history. And up until 10 years ago they held the state in basically a monopoly so they are only smaller now then at their largest service point. I remember in 98 where people couldnt get to each other and some had no anything except what tangible resources they had at hand for weeks.