I’ve learned from working in a newsroom that SOMETIMES we blow things out of proportion. We freak out the public with promises of a storm with apocalyptic consequences. We cry wolf a lot, so it’s no wonder that even WE stop believing our hype. But there is no way we could have predicted how bad this snowstorm would have been. On Saturday Oct. 29th, it started out innocently enough: some big, fluffy flakes coated our lawns and trees. We figured, a few inches and it’ll melt before we even have to deal with it. No joke, three hours into the snowfall, we lost power in epic proportions. At first, I figured we’d get power back within a few hours, or at the LEAST the next day. I joked with my sister via text that we might stop over her house later to hang out.
But then THEY lost power. And then my parents lost power. And then Rob’s parents lost power. And pretty soon it started to get dark outside. I could hear tree limbs cracking under the weight of the light, fluffy snow. And it continued through the night. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for folks who had tree branches fall on their house, that must have been scary.
The first night without power or heat was interesting. A little cold, but Rob and I camped out before so we figured we could handle this for a night. We had candles, LED lights, and a portable Coleman burner for heating up food. And I spent the night reading my library books by candle light. When we woke up the next morning, we were not prepared for what we would encounter.
Our yard was a mess of twisted tree branches.
Majestic maples sagged under the weight of the snow, branches snapped and hung on powerlines.
Powerlines hung dangerously low, making it difficult to even try to drive under them.
Here, just a few houses down, a tree split in half and took an entire electric pole with it.
The weirdest part was the top of our street was blocked by powerlines that were strained, leaning, and hanging low in an odd criss-cross pattern.
Thankfully, the next couple of days the sun came out to melt some of the snow, because our portion of the road was blocked on both sides because of downed wires. Plows didn’t dare tread beyond this point. My house is the white house, next to the sign.
Meanwhile, the temps dropped into the 40′s, and the house got really cold. Waking up to cold, sleeping in cold, and washing up in cold is not easy. Rob and I spent 3 lousy nights in this coldness, going to bed at 8, because the coldness makes you so tired. Tuesday night, I managed to talk him into tagging along on my business trip to Boston for 3 nights, so thankfully we had heat, hot water, and a warm bed for the remainder of the week. When we returned on Friday night, we were disappointed to find out our neighborhood was still dark. Neighbors had purchased generators, so the hum greeted us when we pulled into our driveway. We fed the cat, grabbed a few blankets and pillows and drove to my sister’s house, one town over, where she had power. There we stayed for 3 nights.
Last night (day 10 of no power) we checked on the cat after work, and miraculously the power went on by 5. We were ecstatic! I thanked several utility workers who drove by like nights in shining armor in their trucks, with our house exterior lights beaming as the beacon of electricity in our neighborhood. Rob and I were so thankful to spend the night in our house. It was wonderful.
The next morning, I decided to access the damage (especially since I had just found my lost memory card for my camera). We did spend some time this weekend cutting up, and dragging fallen branches to the side of the road, so at least the yard looks a little cleaner. But my poor maples will never be the same.
This is only a fraction of the brush we gathered. The refuses covers ground going all the way around our property – and we live on a corner lot, so you know we have a ton of branches.
I hope this is not an indication of the winter we will have. It’s already been the year of the roof rake, coil heaters, generators and chainsaws (none of which we have purchased, by the way). What else does the winter of 2011 have in store for us?
