ICE Storm - How did you make out ? (Worcester, Springfield: power lines, hotel)

[VerBoston]

We just got out power back on about 4 hours ago; we had lost power on Friday afternoon around 2:00PM.

This was the first time that I can recall losing power overnight. We lit a fire in the fireplace and most of us slept near the fire in the living room. The worst part was this morning when it was so cold and the fire was not going; we spent the day at in-laws who had power.

I hope everyone else gets their power back soon; the bitter cold is really tough.


- Joe

[brightdoglover]

No power since Thursday night. It was 53 in my house when I left for my night shift after leaving the gas burners on for a while. It's not likely to be fixed in my area until Monday or so, and it's getting really really old. If I didn't have dogs, I'd go to a hotel.A neighbor offered for me to come to his house to get warm, but I have to sleep days, so...
I don't care how infrequent this is. One day last winter was enough. I'm getting a generator and having it wired to the sump pump and heat.
Oddly, I seem to be at the leading edge of the ice. One mile east, and there's very little debris. Annoyingly, the main streets have been repaired, and there are christmas lights and all 1/4 of a mile away, while I worry about my senior dog (he's on medication that makes his fur thin and is more sensitive to cold overall).
I've watched neighbors pack up and head for relatives with power.
I felt like the pictures from the Depression, sitting swathed in coats and all by the stove, just trying to get a little comfortable. On the other hand, I can say that there is certainly such a thing as a "three-dog night," and if one is a beagle who crawls down to your feet, all the better.
Hope the lights and heat are going on all over as we type.

[mommytotwo]

I have 7 people here from Worcester. They lost power on Thursdy night sometime in the middle of the night. My brother in law told me that all night Thursday, every 15 minutes they heard the thumping of tree limbs falling.

They arrived to me here in Western Ma, where we got only rain. Of course, father west in the higher elevations, they are w/out power. My cousins in Chester, and Schenectady, NY both lost power as well. They are toughing it out. One has a pellet stove powered by a battery and the other went out and got a generator.

My BIL says that 4 streets away from his house, they had power.

Anyway, we are hearing now that some areas of Worcester are getting power back so we are just waiting to see if my BIL's came back on so they can head home.

Boy did we really luck out here in the Pioneer Valley! Whew!


btw, I imagine we won't hear from the hardest hit areas till they get their power back!

[VlyRoadKid]

Like mommytwotwo, I live in W.Mass., and even though we're near the VT border, we only got a BIT of freezing rain, then sleet & snow. I was worried for awhile, but if you looked at the Doppler map on the news, you could see a distinct trough of rain, going North up the CT River! It's a cool thing, the valley, which tends to funnel warm up. We have a sort of mini-climate here. I remember once, when staying w/my folks in Central MA, a HUGE snowstorm, with power outages. When my husband and I drove back west, the snow lessened until after we passed Ware, there was NOTHING on the ground!

Folks in Blandford and other hilltowns got hit very hard, though, in this storm.

This storm made me think of one of my favorite, but not well-known films, "The Ice Storm", with Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver and Elijah Wood, among other big names. It takes place on Long Island in the early '70's, dealing with 2 dysfunctional families and how they deal with all kinds of issues, amidst a nasty ice storm. Check it out!

[brightdoglover]

I got my power back at 5p Sunday, while huddled over the stove burners wrapped in clothes. I thought of all the people in wartime and hard times who suffer these "small" discomforts with no end in sight, and how fortunate we are to live as well as we do. I really felt joy when the heat went on.
I am certainly getting a little generator for the heat and the sump pump. The heat is natural gas, but the blower is electric.
Have never lost any of it for more than a day.
Thinking of those who are not yet connected, and let's all remember to contact people who might not be connected yet to check on them and invite them over if we can. (My friends in NH were in better shape than me- a generator and wood furnace. In New Ipswich, she told me that it looked like a bomb went off at tree crown level).
And much appreciation to those work crews who get out there in the cold and work so hard to fix things.

[Greendale]

I live in North Worcester & we lost power Thursday night around 10. Got back power around 5:00 pm on Saturday. When I woke up Saturday morning it was 44 degrees in our house. Driving around today in the Holden area the destruction was just amazing.

[LeavingMA]

I live in Leominster and it was quite the experience. Our area was blessed we had power back by saturday morning after losing it right before midnight on thursday night. Some areas of Leominster have taken a lot longer. Some schools in the area are not starting up again until January 5th.

All thursday night I heard tree limbs falling. Part of our street was blocked and many others. The funny thing is the roads were not icy. If they were it would have even been a bigger mess getting emergency vehicles out there. I've travelled through Fitchburg and it is hard to go 15-20 feet without seeing a significant amount of branches down. Many people throughout Fitchburg, Lunenburg, Ashby, and Westminster are still without power. I drove down Rt. 2 on friday morning and just rows of trees and branches are down. The destruction is simply amazing.

This is one of the worst storms in our area I have ever seen. Many who are in the 80's and 90's said they never saw destruction like this.

[Kford]

I'm from Gardner. We lost power at 1:30am Thursday night (I suppose that's technically Friday) and got it back sometime around 4:30pm on Monday. Apparently we were lucky. I can't believe the news said some people won't get power back until after Christmas. Happy holidays... :\

Anyway... Friday afternoon we had to go out to get gas for our tiny little generator (I'm now glad my father is a "preparedness freak", as my mother calls him) and we had to drive all the way to Ayer just to find a station with power. There were pieces of trees scattered all over Route 2 East. The ice ripped the power lines out of where I used to work and took the pole with it. A couple streets over you actually had to drive underneath fallen wires in order to get anywhere. My parents said they've never seen anything like it, even thinking of the Blizzard of '78. I took pictures of the destruction. The head of emergency management here said it looked like a tornado blew through town -- he was right.

If anyone reading this gets The Gardner News, by the way, I would be the loser that rewrote a song for the power guys and posted it in her window. It was on the front page today (17 Dec 2008). Slow news day, I guess.

Oh! And now they're talking about a foot or so of snow Friday and more later! How badly do you think that will hurt the region?

[neil0311]

We're from MA and used to live in Leominster where things were pretty bad. My brother in law lives in Ashby, MA, and his power is still out, with an ETA for restoration still late this weekend or early next week. He was born in MA and has lived in the area his entire life (44 years) and he said the "devestation" is worse than he's ever seen.

[ChrisA70]

I live out in Chesterfield, MA. We just bought a house out here and moved from Arm-pittsfield. We lost power Thursday night at 11PM, and got our power back Monday at 3PM. Thank God this house had a wood stove or it would not have been good at all. My father lived up the street and it was down to 38 in his house... We all slep here and my house was at 70 degrees thankfully. No water was not cool. We had to go to my aunts house in Springfield to fill up the 5 Home Depot buckets I bought with water to flush the toilets. I have a gas stove here, another thing I am thankful to have. I did lose most of my food though, and what stinks is we went shopping the night of the storm... At the tune of $200...

My house had no damage or trees to fall. But on the other hand my dads house was a nightmare... I will post a few pictures to see.

All in all I am thankful to have power and everyone is ok up here. It was tough, but we New Englanders are tough and can handle it!!!!