Oct '11 Nor'easter

[RedSoxandPatsfan]

Power has been out in my area of MA since Saturday evening at 5:00 pm. Just got power back in Billerica at work this morning.

My house is another story. National Grid is saying our area of Chelmsford, MA may be back up tonight. My sisters place is tomorrow evening, hopefully. We'll see.

Kids have already missed 3 days of school going on 4 tomorrow. Hope it's a mild winter otherwise they'll have to cancel vacations or go to school until July to make up missed days.

[BrerGnat]

So sorry to hear about your prolonged power outage. That would be horrible, especially with kids in the house. I love snow and all, but not the headaches that come along with a big storm like this one. Hope your power indeed comes back today!

[paragon]

I work in Chelmsford. I've been out on the roads in the area over the past few days, and see all the damage done, yesterday, there were still many down tree limbs, laying on wires. Almost every down tree is either an oak, or maple, mostly trees with leaves. My work has had no power for the past few days. We lost power at home in Nashua NH, on Saturday night, but it came back Sunday night about 18 hours later, a friend in Brookline NH still has no power, no running water and no heat. I see more damage out there now, than from Irene, there is still an awful lot of cleanup to be done, but have also seen a lot more power company vehicles out there now that the lines in the woods have been repaired. Chelmsford had many roads with wires down and across them, barely passable. Hopefully you'll get your power back up today, as it seemed like there were more areas being restored last night.

[poohspal]

Hope it comes back on soon. We lost power for only about 5 hours on Sunday. My Dh used to work in Billerica, and has a friend in Chelmsford also without power. I hope this isn't a sign of what we can expect this winter.

[vicster]

Hopefully your power will be restored soon. We lost power during a blizzard last February - it definitely got cold in our house and fortunately is was only out overnite. I can't imagine being without power for days. Way too early for this kind of snow storm.

[Goofeygal]

It is terrible that it is happening especially so early in the year.

[faline]

It truly is a very damaging storm. Some have been very hard hit; others not at all. We were fortunate to keep our power throughout the storm and, though we had a tree snap behind our house, did not suffer any property damage at all. A number of co-workers are just starting to get power back and some are still without power.

To those of you who have been adversely affected by this storm, I hope that you are able to get back to normal in the near future!

[princessgirls]

I have declared Saturday's Nor'easter the worst EVER in terms of damage and destruction!!!

Oh my....it looks like a battlezone around town. Our kids ate 2 of their snow days. The amount of trees, branches and power lines down in my area is overwhelming.
THANKFULLY we had power for the duration,so many still don't have power. All of those big beautiful trees just strewn around.
I for one will not forgot the weather of 2011 for a long long time. It was the wettest on record in the Northeast, and also the nastiest. Between huge snow and ice storms that led into record rains and flooding in March, to the most awful rainy/wet August in recent times, to a Hurricane and more epic flooding, to a freak October snow storm. IT'S ENOUGH ALREADY!!
Just so thankful that we were safe and warm, and my town did not cancel Halloween like so many towns around us due to the dangerous wires and trees being down.
Julie

[SBETigg]

I'm checking in from Panera in Canton CT. No power at home, and probably not for another week. No idea about Internet. It's crazy. Like others have said, it looked like a battle zone- trees down everywhere. It was an awful storm and we lost power almost immediately on Saturday. All we could do was stay together and listen to the trees breaking and falling.

But we're all safe and well, with no major damage, so no complaints. It's just inconvenient to be without power, heat, internet. My daughter was evacuated from her college in NJ and probably won't be back at class for another week, so I know other areas were hit hard too. She is staying with friends. It was hard to be away from her and unable to get to her when things were going badly, but she is safe, too. All is well.

[RedSoxandPatsfan]

Update: Power just came back on at home..

Thanks for understanding and allowing me to vent. Intercotees support is amazing. Helped get me thru the day at work seeing your posts!

THANK YOU ALL!

For those of you still without power sending thoughts, prayers, and for speedy recovery in your area.

[BrerGnat]

Update: Power just came back on at home..

Awesome! I can't even imagine a prolonged power outage. I shudder at the thought.

Sherri, hope your power comes back soon too!

[faline]

Update: Power just came back on at home.

Good to hear! Things are slowly improving!

[lettripp]

Checking in from CT:

We got lucky in this storm because we are on the coast. However, my parents, sister and best friend are all still without power. My friend is staying with us and enjoying our hot water and electricity but my parents don't want to leave and are riding it out. They had to drive almost an hour away to get a chainsaw to clean up the huge trees in their yard. They are estimating they won't get power back until Sunday or Monday. One of my sisters has been crashing in my other sister's dorm room (because somehow UConn survived unscathed).

Needless to say my thoughts and prayers are with all of you that are still without power...

[lynnek]

Missed it! I was away for business in Houston. My poor husband was already dealing with the kids by himself--a toddler Halloween parade, trick or treating three different ways--and then add some snow!! And loss of power!! "Where is your mother" was muttered a few times from what I understand. We go to Disney in one week--yay!!

[SBETigg]

Update from my corner of CT: still no power, day 8. The Governor just backed off on the previous promise to restore power to 99 % of residents by midnight tonight. Now, they're saying by Wednesday night. Ha! Thank goodness my stepdad helped us hook up the generator.

We were in a hotel last night anyway due to a septic system glitch (not pleasant, but the clean-up crew we hired had it all cleaned, disinfected, and deodorized by 11 pm last night). So for now, it's still traveling to a place with free wi-fi to get online, but otherwise we're managing pretty well and probably better than a lot of people without power. Ten deaths post-storm in CT.

[TiggerDeb]

We live in the Western part of the state of MA and we lost power last Saturday 10/29 at 7p.m. and we got it back last night 11/5 at 9:45p.m.

The schools were closed the whole week and my poor cat lived in 3 blankets and my jacket. Our home got down to 48 degrees and i am thnkful for having family around who got power back before us, so we could take showers, and get warm. I sure did need a after this past week. I hate to see what the rest of the winter is going to bring.

[faline]

We live in the Western part of the state of MA and we lost power last Saturday 10/29 at 7p.m. and we got it back last night 11/5 at 9:45p.m.

That's a long time to live without power! Glad you got it back!

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

I might be in the minority here but I actually feel bad for the energy company crews. They have been working insane hours to clean up. My company has been making box lunches, as many as 1700 at a time, so there are lots of people working to get everyone up and running.

The blame for this fiasco should be placed on the heads of the powers that be at the power companies. They need to spend a little (or lot) of money to upgrade systems so this doesn't keep happening.

Even in the blizzard of '78 power wasn't out this long. You'd think technology would have IMPROVED, not taken a step backwards!

I hope all of my Intercot friends have or get their power back soon.

[SBETigg]

Kathy, I also feel bad for the crews out there working to restore power and normalcy (and tree removal). I'm very grateful to them for all their hard work. I got power back at home last night, and though Comcast said we wouldn't have Internet for maybe weeks, I got it back this afternoon. YAY! It's great to be back. (8 days without power. Coldest temp inside: 38 degrees).

[diz_girl]

The blame for this fiasco should be placed on the heads of the powers that be at the power companies. They need to spend a little (or lot) of money to upgrade systems so this doesn't keep happening.

Even in the blizzard of '78 power wasn't out this long. You'd think technology would have IMPROVED, not taken a step backwards!

It's not technology (or the lack thereof) that is the problem. Your blame is in the right place. It's the power companies' upper management cutting maintenance and personnel to the bone in order to cut costs to boost profits and their bonuses, and then this happens whenever a bad storm pops up. Then they have to rely on out of state crews and contractors to fix the damage. Deregulation may have its benefits, this isn't one of them.

My sister lives in Northwestern NJ, just outside Hackettstown, and her power was out for a full week, like TiggerDeb. Luckily they had a generator. They had one neighbor sleep over and others coming over to take showers and have their kids do homework in a well-lit room.