Devastating Ice Storm

On Thursday night, New England was hit by a devastating ice storm. Hubby had a gig at the Java Room but when we left it was only raining. The gig went great - despite the wet weather the place was packed. Hubby played piano while his friend Betsi sang. They even got some kids up for a sing-along.We left around 9:30 and it was still raining. We had just gone to bed at about 11pm when we heard a loud boom and all the lights went out. Hubby happened to be looking out the window and said he saw a big flash. The transformer in front of our house had exploded. All the condos in our area were in darkness. All night long we heard the huge crack and then the sound of a falling branch and then the branch hitting the ground. I didn't get much sleep....I heard the branches falling every 2-5 minutes or so. All. night. long.

When we got up it looked like a hurricane or a tornado had come through. Surprisingly the roads were not icy so Hubby got ready and left for work. He barely had to scrape his car.

Ten minutes later my phone rang. Hubby was calling to say he'd driven by my workplace and there was no power. I called my boss, who said there was no power in four of the six district offices. That's when I finally started to realize how wide-spread this ice storm was.

My work was cancelled, along with most other people's. Hubby got to work to find it dark and locked and turned around to come home. He said there were huge branches down everywhere, including on the on-ramps to the highways. I called some relatives to see if they were okay. No one - except for those living in the "big cities" - had power.

We slept under extra covers on Friday night and were pretty comfortable. I was scheduled to go on a bus trip into NYC on Saturday (which I will post a blog about sometime in the future). I set my cell phone alarm for 4:45 and was picked up by my friend at 5:15. Hubby stayed behind and spent the day out and about. I called at 7pm when we left NYC and Hubby told me we still had no power.

Sleeping Saturday night was much colder. We added more covers - thank God Hubby is a heat machine! Sunday at 6am Hubby got up and saw the very welcome sight of a bucket truck fixing the transformer in front of our house. By 7:30 we had power. Never has heat, a hot cup of tea, or a hot shower felt so good!

My parents, sister and son Doug are still without power. Most other relatives have had it come back on. Today's Sunday paper's headline (I haven't had time to actually read the paper yet) says, "Black Christmas" - because there's a possibility that some places in New Hampshire will not get power back for two weeks! I dont' know how they're going to manage. My parents have a generator which will give them lights and heat but no water. My sister can go over to my parents' house. Doug and his family are staying with his in-laws. But they're all worried about their houses and their pipes freezing.

I can't fault the power companies for taking so long to get power restored in some places. My brother Steve is a lineman for the electric company in MA, and I know from past experience that he's probably been working since Thursday night on 18-hour-on, 6-hour-off shifts. Electric companies from surrounding states will come in to help - as my brother has done in the past when New York or even Canada has been hit by a storm such as this. They'll just do the best they can as fast as they can.

It's really too bad that something so pretty can be so devastating: