Last week one of the biggest snowstorms we’ve seen here in New Hampshire descended on us with a fury.
A lot of snow was predicted, along with bitter temperatures and high winds, and the predictions weren’t wrong. One of the first things that concerns us with a pending storm is – will the power go out? We have a generator we bought in 1999, in preparation for a possible Y2K disaster. Having a generator is great, but there’s still a lot of tension along with it, such as: how long will a possible outage last and do we have enough propane if it lasts more than a few days?
Actually I was the one responsible for purchasing our generator, as I wanted to be prepared for Y2K, just in case. “Nothing’s going to happen,” Buzz said, but reluctantly gave in to my concerns. That New Year’s Eve, as we bridged the 20th century into the 21st, I held my breath, waiting for something to happen. Nothing. Buzz looked at me with an “I told you so look” as I silently pleaded: “Just one little outage, please, to justify this purchase….” Nada. However, in March of that year we finally had a power outage, which lasted a few hours, and then every year afterwards we’ve needed it as well – normally only for a few hours.
Then came the winter of 2008. On the morning of December 12 we woke up to find that our power had gone off and outside the whole world was encased in ice. Tree were bent to the ground under the weight of this thick, cold blanket of white. We couldn’t get down our driveway for the trees that had crashed over it, blocking any exit. Our neighbor had to come over and cut them down with his chain saw to rescue us.
Finally I was totally vindicated by my insisted-upon purchase .
But the power wasn’t turned back on for 10 days. Our daughter and family, who lived nearby, had to seek refuge at our house, as they had no generator. And we had to borrow a propane heater to set up in their house to keep the pipes from freezing. It was not a fun time.
Last week’s power outage lasted only three days, but it was not without its frustrations. Along with the snow came the predicted high winds and brutal cold. Buzz was concerned about how much propane we had left, as well as the fact that we had it running 24/7 because of the cold. During the ice storm he’d had to turn the generator off from time to time and change the oil. Fortunately, last spring we had it professionally cleaned and oiled. It worked perfectly, except for the fact that because we built our house in stages, the generator wasn’t large enough to power our final addition – except for the freezer and a few outlets our electrician rigged up. So Buzz had to drag heavy extension cords around so we could have some light in various rooms.
New England experienced massive power outages. Below is a map of the outages from the Weather Channel.
Finally it stopped snowing, and the winds died down, but because hundreds of thousands of people were without power, crews were stretched to the limit to fix what needed to be fixed.
Our daughter and family have been visiting us, and below is a photo of their two cars buried in snow. Some in our area noted a total snowfall of 40 inches.
Our neighbor and plowman, Andy DeMasi, came not long after I took this picture, to start clearing away the snow. We call him “our Hero.”
Then the digging out began.
On the third day we received a call from Eversource, our electric company: power had been restored. We celebrated–the ordeal was over! Buzz turned off the generator, which we keep in a shed behind our house, unplugged and wound up the extension cords to the last addition, and we went to bed happy. Until midnight, when we woke up and realized the power was off again! Back to the shed he went to plug in the generator again, and back to replugging the extension cords. We tried to get back to sleep. An hour later, lights went on–the power was back. Another trip to the shed, another replugging.
This time, it had to be finished. But no. Mid-morning Eversource contacted us to say that they had to turn the power off again for 90 minutes to “fix a few things.” Back to the shed, turn on the generator (it was still bitterly cold), wait until power was restored. Then, when it was, we were leery–was this the real thing? Would it stay on?
Well it did, thankfully, and today as I’m writing this we’re experiencing temps in the high 40s and a big melt going on. Which means one thing: mud. Mud season for those who live on rural gravel roads.
Winter snowstorms and power outages, mud season, and then – coming up in May – black fly season. Why do we live here, some wonder.
Call us crazy, we love New Hampshire. Those glorious months of June, July, August, September, and October make it all worth while. And really, we don’t mind winter, either.