Ice Storm!

[Biciclista]

sorry, i grew up in NJ and everything north of NYC was "upper new york state"

[solobiker]

I grew up near Rochester, NY and that was considered Upstate NY also. I think anything north of NYC generally has been considered Upstate..alough that is a large area

[mudmucker]

Come to my house if you would like some ice. Still after 48 hrs, power lines down, trees down all over town - line down in my yard, and the ice hasn't melted off the trees yet. It's a veritable skating rink where I am. Phillipston got hit bad and the whole area is without power. I'm at 1200 ft and that elevation doesn't help. I've been without power for 48 hours with no heat so far, and they don't predict the power back on for many more days.

The night of the storm I heard a huge crack, noise, thump in the middle of sleep. After having just been robbed, it sounded like someone trying to break down the cellar door and I bolted upright. But then began the bewitching hours where literally, every 20 minutes the cracking and snapping of trees and branches occurred for the next 8 hours well into morning. The trees were so heavy with ice. It kept me awake all night it was so loud and frequent. The ones further in the woods sounded like a shotgun going off, echo and all. A couple of times branches hit the roof and I heard scraping against the house. I was seriously thinking of moving to the living room couch in the middle of the house away from trees but I didn't.

I planned ahead as I usually do and filled jugs of water for drinking and 5 gallon buckets with water for toilet flushing prior to losing power. The temp in the house held to 58d the first day. Last night it fell to 52 and today it maintained at 42 degrees. Brrr. When I can see my breath then it's time to get out of the house but I couldn't drive the roads until today. The fire department came to my house to tell me there is a state of emergency (I didn't have much contact with the outside world) and they told me they've opened up a shelter for people nearby. I've been using the shelter to refill water. I came to work in Lowell where there is power, I can shower, get gas (can't get gas where I am), stock up on water, check internet, and yes while I'm here actually work. All those years I lived with wood stoves but I don't have one now and I sure miss it. Obviously I can't find a generator east of the Mississippi but you bet I'll get one when they're back in stock. Anyway I won't be back online for a while. I have my laptop here at work where I'm pilfering off of another WiFi, since the firewall off of our server doesn't allow access to forums like this. I have a friend who is bringing his generator to my house tomorrow for a few hours where I'll be able to recharge some well water and bring the house up to temp so pipes don't freeze as it's getting closer to 32. He has no power either so he'll be taking it back. I'll go back to the house tonight to sleep - If I'm lucky temps will hold around 40 in the house. I've done backcountry camping, I'll be fine under the covers. I have a gas stove so I can at least fire up some hot beverages and actually made myself a very hearty meal by candlelight.

[songlady]

I consider us "Western NY"

[crazycanuck]

EEEEE!!!! I remember the Ice Storm of 98 (ok, i lived on the other side of Canada ) & know how much damage it did! Yowsers!!!

Keep warm & take care of yourselves.

Ya know what happens in 9months after events like this! Perhaps the economic climate might change that though?

[Biciclista]

EEEEE!!!! I remember the Ice Storm of 98 (ok, i lived on the other side of Canada ) & know how much damage it did! Yowsers!!!

Keep warm & take care of yourselves.

Ya know what happens in 9months after events like this! Perhaps the economic climate might change that though?

sex is pretty cheap entertainment.

[mudmucker]

sex is pretty cheap entertainment.

Chuckle. Yes it is. Fortunately I am too old to worry what might happen after 9 months, well, in transition at least. Signing off until who knows when, unless I come to work tomorrow to warm up. Man with generator is coming tonight instead of tomorrow.

[sundial]

Here's hoping that you guys are safe and warm tonight. That ice storm was a real doozy.

[Crankin]

Yea, it's true that most people think anything north of NYC is "upstate" NY. But real upstate is pretty far north!
I just got back from dinner and I have come to find out that just 5 miles from my house, almost the whole nearby town is without power. We weren't sure if the restaurant we were going to in Westford had power, but it seemed like they got it on in the business district first. My friends in Acton were without power for like 8 hours yesterday and where I used to live (Boxborough) is still without. I heard my old neighborhood looks pretty bad, with downed lines and trees, pretty much like Mudmucker described.
I feel lucky.

[solobiker]

I consider us "Western NY"

I would have to agree with that..It is just that I have heard many people clasify it as upstate as well. I tell people here in CO that I grew up near Buffalo even though I grew up near Rochester as most know or have heard of Buffalo before. Whenever I tell people I am from NY, even if I say the western part they always think I am from the city.

[Jolt]

Yea, it's true that most people think anything north of NYC is "upstate" NY. But real upstate is pretty far north!
I just got back from dinner and I have come to find out that just 5 miles from my house, almost the whole nearby town is without power. We weren't sure if the restaurant we were going to in Westford had power, but it seemed like they got it on in the business district first. My friends in Acton were without power for like 8 hours yesterday and where I used to live (Boxborough) is still without. I heard my old neighborhood looks pretty bad, with downed lines and trees, pretty much like Mudmucker described.
I feel lucky.

I feel lucky too! This section of Worcester didn't get hit too hard. I'm wondering if there will even be power at church tomorrow (in Fitchburg, which apparently got hit pretty hard along with all the other towns in that area). Better dress really warmly... Then I was planning on doing a trail run in the Princeton area but am wondering if it will even be possible to get to the trail! Might have to go to plan B.

[Crankin]

I might postpone that trail run. It might be covered with ice. We wanted to do a local hike today, but I am not sure what the conditions will be, even right by my house. Maybe I'll end up going to Lincoln Woods, just a bit further east.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hi everyone!

Our area was very badly hit with the ice storm. We were without power for almost 2 1/2 days, and two of those nights dipped down to 15F degrees.
We are lucky that we got our power back during the night last night- others in neighboring villages and back roads may still go until Tuesday without heat or power.

Our house inside only dropped down to 50F, so our single living room fireplace insert stove (which is not designed to heat the whole house) did manage to keep us from freezing. We always figured it would be enough to keep us from freezing, and it passed the test.

We had running water all throughout the event too, because we are hooked up to the village water system which is gravity-fed from the little reservoir up on the hill. Thus, we don't have to depend on electric to run a pump from a well. So we had freezing cold water, -but water nonetheless!....we could flush toilets and had drinking/washing water. This is one big advantage of living on the edge of our little village as opposed to further out in the countryside surrounding us. This was one of the reasons we bought this house- that we would have access to town walking in emergencies and if gas was unobtainable, and would always have village water if electricity failed. The houses only about two houses further out from us are not on village water system, and thus had no running water.

I was also very glad that on Thursday (before the power went out Thurs evening) I was able to both fix a flat tire on my car AND get my kitty Pearl to the vet and get her started on some antibiotics for an infection- she had been getting sick for a few days prior. That would have been bad if she was cold AND getting sicker during all this.

Our other blessing was that there was miraculously power down on Main street during the whole time, so we bundled up several times and hiked the mile to town for big hot breakfasts Fri and Sat morning. That was nice, and we could get the latest 'emergency news' from everyone while in town. There was a state of emergency declared and people were not supposed to be driving unless it was an emergency.

We had lots of food, and we had plenty of lanterns and candles and flashlights. (I am sort of anal when it comes to being prepared, and we had tons of candle lanterns, 30 spare candles for them, several oil lamps, and lots of flashlights and a battery radio, a propane camp stove that could be used out in the yard if needed, and canned and dried food in the basement. We put the fridge contents into coolers and didn't lose any significant food. Since it was below freezing outside, we just put our freezer stuff in a cooler out on the porch and left it there.
Our basement has a pool of water everywhere because the sump pump was without power, but luckily we have a little emergency drain in the floor that was still functioning, so the water never got higher than 1 inch. Other people were not so lucky and had badly flooded basements.
Some of our elderly neighbors got moved out of their homes into relatives' houses or to shelters. We have elderly neighbors on 3 sides of us, but they were all fine and we kept in touch.

We closed off the upstairs so as not to waste precious heat from the woodstove, wore lots of wool, gloves and hats in the house, and piled blankets and kitties on the bed at night. During the day the cats liked hanging out in front of the stove. I read a book by lantern light both nights.
It wasn't much fun feeling cold all the time and knowing how we were slowly getting further and further behind in work, but it could have been way worse like it has been for many other people. (trees falling on their houses and cars, and one older friend of ours fell on the ice in town on thursday and broke his hip AND his wrist.)

The worst for us personally is that our beautiful 45 year old HUGE white pine in the back yard was devastated. It was about 50-60 feet tall and gorgeous, and at least 2/3 of all its large horizontal branches are broken off and it now looks like a sad tall splintered toothpick with some remaining smaller branches decorating it. We feel heartsick about it, but we'll have to wait til all this ice has melted before we even access what to do about it. It was so beautiful.

We are very grateful for a warm house now, hot showers, etc. This kind of thing teaches you not to take electricity for granted. This was a TERRIBLE ice storm, and will take WEEKS of cleanup and repair for many people. I read that power crews came in from as far away as Michigan (!!) to help get the power lines up again, working all throughout the 3 nights in 15F degree temps.
They are all still working like mad as many are still without heat or power.

So, we are back up and running, a grateful.

[pardes]

Wow, Lisa!!!! What a story. I'm so glad you were prepared. The rain that lasted for two days here in Delaware was just rain and then it headed your way. Few people here plan for such a thing as a major ice storm but ice is no respector of persons and we should be prepared.

Yes, thank goodness you got Pearl to the vet before the storm and I'm glad it turned out to be an adventure for you rather than a disaster.

[eclectic]

Glad to hear things are getting up and running again. Ice storms are NOT good things - so much damage.

Many Kudos and thanks to all the linemen and women for their long hours in horrible conditions to get the power up again.

We are currently in the thoes of a blizzard. I will take a blizzard over ice any day.
- We have heat
- we have power
-we have internet
- No one has to go out in it (I don't know if the plows are out anymore or not - often they pull them until things settle down)
- If travel is absolutely necessary (medical, police) - snowmobiles are readily available

Yup - I will take a blizzard over ice any day.
Glad to hear you were able to get kitty taken care of. Best of luck on the cleanup