The Great New Hampshire Ice Storm of 2008

By Jim on December 13th, 2008

Well I’m back online after being offline most of yesterday. Like so many others I was without power and heat.

The historic ice storm that hit New Hampshire late Thursday night and yesterday left one person dead and hundreds of thousands without power.

At the storm’s peak, more than 400,000 homes and businesses were without power as freezing rain and high winds brought down power lines and left wide swaths of the state without lights and heat. Authorities said the scope of the disruption was unparalleled in recent history.

I finally had to leave New Hampshire and head down to Taxachusetts to stay at my mom’s house. I have a brown head parrot that cannot tolerate the cold so I had to get him some place warm. I initially took him to the bird store where I got him but the place was filling up with refugee birds from people that had no heat.

So I opted to head down to MA and here we are this morning. I am having a cup of warm coffee and starting to get caught up on my blogging. Bilbo, my parrot, is over there on his small perch stand. He has had to suffer the indignity of sleeping in his carrier. He is used to his giant bird cage (I call it his “palace”) but he is making due.

I must admit that I did not prepare well enough for this storm. I needed gas for my truck and blew it off thinking I’d just get it the next day. Well I did once I found pumps that had electricity and worked. I was down to a quarter of a tank and that’s really bad when you are in a storm situation and need mobility to leave an area without power. Thankfully I got gas and was able to get down here where there is heat and electricity. My friend Bruce was quite prepared for this with a generator, lots of food and booze and a wood stove. I had plenty of canned food and water but no way to heat my apartment.

I don’t know what the situation is in the town where I live. I am going to call the electric company and/or police department later to see if the power is back on up there. Hopefully they’ve already fixed it. This was a very bad storm though and my heart goes out to those people and birds with no heat or electricity. I could live without the electricity for a few days but my bird cannot tolerate the loss of heat.

The night of the storm I heard what sounded like explosions as branches fell and trees got knocked over. I peered out the window after 3:00 a.m. and it was oddly beautiful but also scary as the power was already out and I knew the roads would be too bad to drive on for a while.

My friend Kevin’s house almost got hit by a tree and down the street from him there was a guy who had two vehicles get totally nailed by a large tree. The tree fell right onto the roofs of these vehicles and smashed their roofs in. They are pretty much totaled from what I could see. He’s actually lucky the tree fell that way and not onto his house as it was quite close.

Ice storms really do scare me. Blizzards don’t but ice storms do as they knock trees down with reckless abandon and almost always take the power out. Blizzards, by comparison, are rather tame and if you have to drive it’s far easier to do so in a blizzard (if you have 4 wheel drive on your truck like I do on my 4Runner) than an ice storm. Even 4 wheel drive doesn’t help too much on ice but it works great in the snow.

God bless everybody who is up in New Hampshire (and other states) without power right now. Hang in there and I hope that the electric company is able to get the power back on ASAP for everybody. I really do wish I owned a house instead of living in an apartment. I do not have the option of a wood pellet stove or generator (as far as I know generators are a bit big for an apartment) so I don’t have a way of heating my apartment when the power goes out.

Anyway, this was a very nasty one and I will not make the mistake of underestimating the next ice storm. They can be oddly beautiful but also quite dangerous. Although it’s a bit late now here are some tips from the PSNH site about how to prepare for power outages, I wish I’d read them before this storm. Heh, heh.

Edit: PSNH is posting updates on Twitter.

Check medications that require refrigeration. Be sure you know if they will be affected by a prolonged interruption of power. You may want to talk with your pharmacist. You may also want to keep a small cooler handy.

Put refrigerator and freezer at coldest settings. Do this a half day or so before the storm is scheduled to hit. Keep a blanket handy to throw over these appliances for added insulation, if need be. (Be sure to return the settings to their normal position as soon as the crisis has passed.)

Get extra ice. Ice helps maintain cold temperatures in your freezer and refrigerator. Use plastic bags filled with ice (or water, if you have enough time to freeze it) in the freezer. Use block ice, if possible, in the refrigerator. And should the ice melt, you can drink the water.

Set aside water. This is vital if you depend on a water pump that might be disabled during a storm. Sanitize and fill spare containers with water for drinking. Fill your bathtub with water for use in the toilet. A bucket of water poured in the toilet bowl is all that’s needed for flushing. If for any reason you don’t have an adequate supply of water, and are unable to get enough from friends or neighbors, call your municipal officials (including town clerk, police or fire station) to ask about nearby water sources.

Be prepared to cook outside. It’s possible that your stove will be knocked out of operation, so you may wish to use your backyard grill for cooking. However, please beware! Do not bring the grill indoors. A grill without proper ventilation can be deadly. It is possible to use Sterno or a comparable fuel indoors to heat food.

Stock up on batteries and easy-to-prepare food. Give yourself the greatest flexibility in meal preparation, and the greatest comfort once the sun goes down. Don’t forget flashlights (one for each person in your family), batteries, and a manual can opener.

Prepare alternative sources of heat. Even a gas or oil furnace needs electricity to operate, so if you have a fireplace or wood stove as an alternative heat source, be sure you have enough wood. A portable electric generator can be a valuable backup source of power to operate your furnace and appliances. Just be sure you have it installed by a professional, and click here for important information on generating your own electricity. In frigid weather, if your power is likely to be out for more than a few days, you may want to call your plumber and ask about draining your home’s water pipes so they don’t freeze and burst. And if you have no alternative heat, you can call your local fire or police department or local Red Cross chapter to locate an emergency shelter, if needed.

Unplug sensitive equipment. Voltage irregularities can occur for any number of reasons during or after a storm, especially if there has been damage on or near your home. The safest thing to do is to unplug any sensitive electrical devices (TV, VCR, stereo, microwave, computer, answering machine, garage door opener, etc.). Planning ahead, you may wish to consider surge suppressers. They can be purchased either for individual pieces of equipment, or for your entire house.

Fill your car’s gas tank. You never know where you may need to go. What’s more, your automobile can be a place to get warm, as long as you keep it well ventilated and don’t sleep while the motor is running.

Plan to live without everyday tools that need electricity. Your garage door opener, for example. Be sure you know how to get the door open and shut manually. And if you keep your cellar free from flooding by using an electric sump pump, be prepared to call your local fire department for help if you lose power for very long.

Keep a battery-operated radio handy. Stay informed with the storm’s progress, as well as safety tips and clean-up operations. Don’t forget fresh batteries.

Remember: stay away from downed power lines. Keep your distance from any downed power line. Don’t drive over downed lines, and if a downed line is in or near water, keep your distance from the water, even a little puddle. And whether a power line is down or not, don’t touch anything that might be in contact with it – like a tree limb, for example.