Ice Storm!

[bambu101]

This is what it looked like here in Western Mass:

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.s...tegory=Weather

We have generators and kerosene heaters, and managed to stay warm, take showers, cook hot meals, and watch TV. We came home from getting more gasoline yesterday to find our neighbor scooping water from the brook to flush his toilets with (he had a woodstove, but no water). Some woman in town also nearly died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running their generator in an attached garage with the door closed.

The ice is melting today with warmer temperatures, but the clean up is going to be a long process. The National Guard has been activated to help out.

I have lived in New England for 54 years, and this is the worst ice storm ever. It literally looked like a bomb went off.

[mudmucker]

This is what it looked like here in Western Mass:

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.s...tegory=Weather

We have generators and kerosene heaters, and managed to stay warm, take showers, cook hot meals, and watch TV.

Wow. That's great. Excellent that you have the heat and hot water. Looks like temps will be somewhat reasonable the rest of the week.

I'm pilfering WiFi out of the building here at work from my personal laptop so I have access to TE.

I grew up in Greenfield. Where in western MA are you? Yes, I've been in New England for 48.5 yrs and I agree, worst I've seen.

[bambu101]

I am in Blandford, which is on the slopes of the Berkshires, and also referred to as the Hilltowns. We are at around 1400 feet in elevation, which means more snow and ice. The other towns in the valley got only rain.

[bmccasland]

Mudmucker - I've been away for the weekend, and see you've been in all sorts of trouble! I hope you get electricity restored soon. Not sure if I prefer loosing power in the summer or the winter. Sort of like picking your evil. So here's hoping you're nice and toasty warm very soon.

[sundial]

Beth, are you guys getting any freezing rain or sleet?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I hope those of you still without power are ok. I know the temps warmed up today a lot here in NY near Albany. The ice here has melted off the trees. Many thousands of people in NY and MA and other places in the NE are STILL without power but thankfully they will not freeze today.
Tonight is supposed to be rainy, but by tomorrow temps are plummeting well below freezing again.

It's been awful for so many people....I feel lucky considering what others are still going through.
DH wants to buy a generator after this is over, needless to say.

[mudmucker]

Bambu - yup that's certainly western Mass. I am at 1200 feet and it's a big difference between rain and snow for MA.

bmccasland - thanks. I think I'd rather lose power in the summer. I get cold easily. But then, I don't live in N.O. either so I might speak differently if I went through that experience down there. Well, the circumstances are imposed so I don't have to choose.

Bleeker St - good you were able to get out of the woods a little earlier but 2.5 days isn't fun nontheless. It got old by noon on Friday...

Jolt, you are in the Worcester Highlands (physiographically) - that's great you didn't get that affected

some things of note:
- for about 2 days the yard was sooo fragrant with green, the evergreen smell of broken trees was heavenly
- the inside isn't that bad either - I've been using fragrant vanilla and lavender pillar soy candles the last 5 days, mmm
- for the first 3 days I kept flicking the light switch on and off everytime I entered a room, and was reminded I needed to flick the flashlight on instead.
- I never owned any Ibex or smartwool items. With the TE pi sale I got ibex and smartwool lightweight and midweight tops, a smartwool midweight half zip and some smartwool bottoms at another store. They are sooo warm, so much warmer than the polypro I have. I have been living in them, so to speak, for the last 5 days. I had just handwashed them all 2 days before the storm hit so they were nice and fresh. Bought them in the nick of time.

[bmccasland]

Beth, are you guys getting any freezing rain or sleet?

Neither. Dare I mention that it was 72 muggy degrees? Had the back door open until the mosquito invasion got too bad. Is currently in the 60s, foggy, grey. The cold front is just north of us and the weather prognosticators are taking stabs at whether it'll dip south or not.

[nancielle]

I am in Blandford, which is on the slopes of the Berkshires, and also referred to as the Hilltowns. We are at around 1400 feet in elevation, which means more snow and ice. The other towns in the valley got only rain.

On the news here the weather people commented that those cities/towns along the Route 7 corridor of Berkshire County only got the rain (I'm in Pittsfield) but those towns off the corridor (the hilltowns like Savoy, Otis, etc.) got slammed. The weather was warm (almost 60 degrees) most of yesterday but the rain that started falling froze overnight making the roads all over pretty darn slick.

Snow's in the forcast for tonight.