Last Saturday, we in New England were all hit by Storm “Alfred.” What started out as a freak snowstorm, where we thought the worst would happen was that we’d have to shovel our way out of 8” of snow, quickly turned into a nightmare. Due to heavy snow on limbs still covered with leaves, several of our trees came down; along with enormous pine branches (we have 100-foot pine trees on our property). The entire night you could hear popping and cracking up in the trees as more and more debris rained down onto the house. About two hours into the storm, we lost our power—which means we lost our electricity, our heat, and our running water.
The next morning we ventured outside and found that our two beautiful trees in the front yard were decimated to the point where there’s hardly anything left but the trunks. The ENTIRE front yard was filled with debris. Dogwood trees came down in the backyard, and again, the entire area was covered with branches and limbs. The roof was covered, to the point where I couldn’t tell the people at CL&P whether or not our electrical wires were still attached to the house. It was the sort of fall-out that we couldn’t possibly clear out ourselves, but would need professionals ($$$).
Despite all this, we count ourselves lucky in that a) we were unhurt, and b) the house and cars were fine. We STILL don’t have power, but there is a shelter in town where we can get warm, charge up things, get coffee, etc. The seniors in town are bunking there overnight.
An odd thing happened…I didn’t want to knit or crochet. I’m not sure why this is. It might be because I usually do my yarn work with others, and that was impossible, as NO ONE had power, and certainly not the usual hangouts at which we congregate. My other favorite thing is to knit or crochet in front of the TV (out of the question), or listening to a podcast (I couldn’t waste the battery power on my Blackberry listening to podcasts). Also, everything I’m working on, except for the socks, is sort of complicated, which means I can’t work under low light, and I didn’t feel like doing the socks—too boring.
Also, I think I was (and still am) in a state of shock. At most, in the past, we’ve lost power for a day or two—not SEVEN, and we’ve never had the house and yard in the kind of shape they’re in.
I’m hoping to get back to normal yarn work next week, when (hopefully) we’ll have power and things will be (quasi) normal again.
Sorry to hear of your loss of power and loss of some of your trees. I'm glad there was no serious damage to your home and that no one was hurt. Take care.
ReplyDeleteHang in there, I hope it comes back on for you soon. I am in Farmington and am in the very small minority in town that maintained power. This came in very handy because we kept my 4 yr old niece from Friday until yesterday when the power came back at her house. We were actually the only ones in the entire extended family with power. However we lost LOTS of trees. The trees in my area are all about 12-18 yrs old and they were no match for the snow. I hope that your cleanup won't be too crazed. I am also very glad that there was no serious damage to your home and cars and that your family was not injured.
ReplyDeleteCT was hit so hard. You have a very positive attitude about what happened. It can not be easy. Hopefully the power companies will have enough help to get it all restored soon.
ReplyDeleteWe were blessed that the predictions that we would have to wait until yesterday proved wrong, we went out Saturday and were back Monday night. We can't take the dogs to the local shelters and flooding was a concern.
We have a gas hot water heater that does not require any electric to work. Our gas heater requires an electric start so it did get cold in the house. A friend brought us wood, so we used our fireplace.
What I was truly grateful for is that we didn't flood. During Irene we had bad flooding because the sump pump is electric and it is the reason we were in the process of working on getting a hard wired set up for a generator so we can alternate what we run for how long when the power is out. There are a few things that are hard to plug and play during an outing. Our goal was to get it done before winter hits. We are working on finding the right generator and getting the electrician freed up to do the work. I guess we missed our deadline.
This storm was so early and so big that it really hit hard. Yes, I'd say that you are still in shock. A friend in NJ was still out of her house in other lodging yesterday because fully leaved trees broke across the electric lines to their house. Hope you are back up and getting things under way to clear the downed wood very soon. Best Wishes.
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