We haven't posted in a while, and while I can't speak for Matt, my issue for what will have been a full week now as of midnight tonight is a lack of electricity. I'm writing this from work.
The question everyone has been asking when greeting an acquaintance in Southern NH the last few days isn't, "How are you?" or even, "How's the Christmas shopping going?" Nope, it's been "Got power yet?"
Last Thursday night, a massive ice storm hit the state and region. Those of us whose previous reference to "a bad ice storm" was the one we had in December 1998 were totally unprepared for the scale of this one.
Do the math: In 1998, my previous house was without power for four days. Some 70,000 customers lost power in the state. A staggering 424,000 customers (note the term, as that probably means far more people) were without power a week ago tomorrow after the storm. The fact that the number has gone down to below 70,000 as of this morning is a testament to the hard work of the crews who have come from as far as Ohio and Maryland to help out.
I really can't complain: My in-laws got power restored within a day, and my family and have had a warm place to stay, hot meals and hot showers for the week. And we should get it restored to our house this weekend, weather permitting. Many folks won't have power for Christmas.
Still, it's been a disheartening experiece to pull up to our dark, cold house (39 degrees inside when I checked this morning) and hear the roar of my neighbors' generators still going after a week.
As I post this, the house is going on its 160th hour without electricity. Amazing.
-JDE2
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I feel your pain...the night of the ice storm, the digital clock in my bedroom went off when my lights flickered and when I went to bed, I saw the time on it was wrong. I had to go back downstairs and find out what time it was and reset the clock.
Shudder.
Now I know how the pioneers felt.
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