There's an article on Boston.com published at 5:53 PM today, saying that "Nearly 1 million remain without power after ice storm".

Governor Patrick declared a state of emergency and said that he would request a presidential disaster declaration so that federal money would be available for relief.

The storm wasn't a big deal here in SE MA, and I didn't even realize there was a problem until I was at a doctor's appointment. A woman walked in looking dazed, and said she came from the north and it was a disaster. No power, trees down, etc.

I second terrene's hope that everybody gets through this OK.

On a side note, when I was out of power during a nor'easter, I was very grateful for the power cord to charge the cellphone from the car battery.

Claire

Down here in the banana belt it was in the 60's yesterday morning while the Worcester area was being coated in ice. The pictures were truly amazing. Apparently, many trees that were previously cut down in Worcester because of the long horn beetle infestation were still in yards and are now mixed with trees brought down by ice. And officials are worried that people will move the infested trees out with the ice storm damage spreading the insects far and wide. The message to homeowners is to NOT move any previously cut trees off your property--it will be illegal to do so. What a mess.

Here in Groton, I was out of power til about 4 yesterday. I feel very fortunate to have gotten it back on. Took a ride about town today and what a mess. There was also a detour due to a fire. What a shame. Got to see more out of the way places with more trees down. I didn't bring my camera. There were some awesome shots.

I have several trees down on the property and am on the tree guy's list for a cleanup. Fortunately nothing came onto the house.

The worst of it for me was a downed tree blocked the best access to the gas grill stored on the side of the house. I had to drag it the whole way around the house to the back patio the long way. I can deal with that!

My sister in the next town had power, but 1 mile from her, her son's family did not. She got in some good grandma time!!

"Dazed" is an apt description of how I felt yesterday, driving across downed power lines, seeing the branches and wood piled and shoved across the road, large trees split in half. I feel fortunate and relieved that the power was back on at the rental home today, which means I can get back to working on it. You can't paint when it's only 47 degrees inside!

However, a few miles down this street, the power is still out. I passed several crews working on a particularly bad stretch. A section of 3 telephone poles were leaning badly and wires were hanging haphazardly. I feel badly for those guys working round the clock in that freezing weather and for the residents who are still wondering when their power will be back on.

Wendy, wish I'd had my camera too. Between the damage, the crews working, and the ice that still persists on some of the vegetation, there were lots of good photo ops!

We are near the southern edge and just got power back this afternoon. East of here it may take several days. I was at the Vanderbilt open house last night, and the ranger who took us to the house said that it was a total disaster where he lives. The emergency frequencies spent Thursday night squaking about downed power lines, house fires, exploding electric boxes and other ice related adventures.
The difficult thing for this particular area is that while the damage is more extensive than our local company is comfortable dealing with, all available help is going to areas harder hit.

At times like this, I really come to appreciate our boring, mid-1960's two story box house. The fireplace kept us warm enough during the day. It never got cold enough to freeze the pipes at night. We were reasonably comfortable in bed under a mountain of wool blankets and down comforters.

About ten years ago, we had major, major problems from a late snowfall. Among other things, it literally knocked down cellphone towers. However, even though there were wires down everywhere, the landline phones worked fine throughout the entire thing. It has made me very relucant to stop that service, even though our particular phone company is fairly expensive.

Our power just came on a half hour ago--almost two full days and nights with no electricity, heat, light, landline phone, or ability to charge a cell phone. The house is bitterly cold and dark. It has been awful. And we are the lucky ones. Others may be a week or more before power returns.

The Merrimack Valley is a disaster zone and neither town nor state officials are acting. I am livid. We have not even been able to get accurate updates from the town, police, electric company, or news sources.

All most of us have had has been battery-powered radios. WBZ has been a terrible disappointment. They are not the station they used to be. They play the same news loop over and over all day, with no updates for the hundreds of thousands for whom they are the only connection with the outside world.

This is a critical situation in temperatures like this. Trees are down everywhere. Houses and cars are damaged. Roads are closed. It is the darkest time of year so the nights begin at 4pm and don't end til 7am. The cold is unendurable.

The worst--if you are healty--is the fear of frozen pipes and the disaster that ensues.

I have blankets tacked to windows everywhere at night, to help keep out the cold. Blankets across doorways to keep the bit of heat from our one fireplace in one room. I've had a coat on, with many layers underneath, for several days.

Where are our government officials? Probably at a holiday party, schmoozing with the media. Neither is out helping the people, who are left on their own to deal with disaster.

Sorry to write a rant but it's the result of 48 hours of cold and frustration. Note how many of our regular posters are not online yet. Think of our NH and Maine friends tonight.

I just heard on the news possibly Thursday or Friday for some... Wow!!

Ginny you put an interesting Katrina-like spin on this. That was a good rant. I hadn't thought of it quite that way, but you're right. Govt FOR THE PEOPLE is seriously lacking here.

they do provide shelters with teeny cots a foot apart from each other... yeah, I'm sure to head right down there. NOT. They must think that's fine. No one wants to leave their house and their pipes and their stuff.

I would think there is a whole lot more could be done if they were truly organized for emergencies. Communication w/o power could be our biggest challenge for the next emergency.

ginny, terrene,mad gal, and wendy,
I was sorry to read that this crisis has taken its toll on the region of New England you call home. Response and communication during this state of emergency certainly seems to be varied from town to town I wonder if disaster money like education money is based on tax/property values?
Rockman raised an interesting point regarding the additional challenge of Wocester and surrounding quarantined communities that had just begun the massive cutting of 5000 plus trees in an attempt to deal with the Asian long horned beetle.
"The Wocester Telegram" has what I thought was a very informative article explaining to residents what they should do with felled limbs and why.

People laugh at Michal Dukakis but I had just lived here a year during the blizzard of 78 and had two babies. He was on the TV in his famous sweater with frequent, informative updates. He told people to stay home or get home. He shut the state down when it needed to be done and got the job done. Remember the scenes of Rte. 128?

Tom Menino is another one people joke about. I don't live in Boston but in the area and he is a terrific mayor. He is all Boston all the time and for the neighborhoods, "the folks", as he says.

It doesn't matter about political parties. It's about thinking about the people. No one in government is thinking about the people in this emergency. Where is Deval Patrick? Where are the governors of NH and ME? For that matter, where is Kerry and where are our congressmen? Our local people? My town manager--all I could get on Friday in my very expensive suburb was a machine.

A million people without power in New England in the dead of winter. Makes you wonder.

Re frozen pipes: I have no expertise, but I found an insurance company website that says:

"Winter storms often knock out power. Without functioning heat, pipes are more susceptible to freezing. Please take the following precautions to reduce the likelihood of costly damage.

Stopping the water supply:

Locate the water main (typically in the basement) and shut it off.

 Drain the system:

- Open the cold water faucet located in the lowest elevation point in the home, and let it run until the flow stops.

- Open all cold water taps on the upper-most floor of the home to break the system vacuum and improve drainage.

- Note: depending on the plumbing design, draining the water line may take as long as 30 minutes.

 Once the pipes are drained, immediately close all taps that were opened during the draining process. This will prevent possible overflows once water is restored. "

It's supposed to warm up Sunday and Monday, so tonight's the big problem.

Good luck all.
Claire

Ginny, you are 100% right. Living in the Merrimack Valley right now is a disaster.

I'm in Billerica, and though we didn't have it any where near as bad as many others in the valley, it was bad enough.

Hubby and I woke Friday morning to the front storm door frozen shut as was the back one. Just the way the freezing rain hit the doors.

Interesting experience sitting on the floor, one of us at each door, hairdryers in hand, threaded by extension cords to melt the ice to open the door.

Everything was encased in ice, small branches down all over, but nothing huge.

At that point we had all our power and where keeping our fingers crossed, as we live in a part of town that rarely has power outages.

Got those doors opened and used the dryer to be sure all the areas where dry.

Could see the street was ice, and to our surprise, the dead end road we live on had been sanded.

Schools where closed all over the valley, and hoped that hubby would not have to venture out to go to work, but not the case.

Took him almost 2 hours to get from the center of Billerica to Tewksbury, right along route 133 and found lots of power out in parts of the facility he works in.

Should never have commented about the road being sanded and how lucky we where to still have power.
Not 10 minutes after I said it, a tree branch came down, landed on the carport roof, one of those thin kind of branches and the power line was down.

I know, don't complain that my power was gone till late Friday night. Others are in far worse shape, but had we not had it back by midnight, we would have been in a shelter.
My spine can not take the cold like that, not after all the spine surgeries I have.

today the power flickered quite a few times, but so far so good, and my house if filled with people staying here to keep warm because of no power and that's in my town and a couple of surrounding towns.

Ginny, people can laugh all they want at and about Michael Dukakis, but you won't find me or my hubby being one of them.

I was here during the blizzard of '78. 7 months pregnant with my, now 30 year old son. He was the standard by which governors can well learn from.
He was on the TV screen more than he was off. Sweater or no sweater, just seeing his face and hearing him talk, telling us what was going on, was a security in and of itself.
It told the people of this state what was going on, what the government was doing, and made it quite clear in very blunt, but simple terms, how very serious the situation was.
Yes he shut the state down and he wasn't afraid to take action.

Big deal, Patrick declared a state of emergency. As my daughter put it "whoopy ding. He did that to make the state eligible for federal money. What about the people who had to go to work, no matter where they lived? It was either risk their lives to go from an area of disaster to an area that just got rain? If they didn't go to work they either where forced to use sick time to get paid or didn't get paid at all."

She's right. Plenty of people live inside the areas that where in a disaster after this storm, but work where all they got was rain.

A huge portion of this state is in a disaster still and the state should have been shut down, regardless of where you live.

As for trying to get hold of anyone in my town to find out where they set up a shelter, no luck here either. No answer, and the cops weren't told either for most of the day.

You are so right when you say,
"a million people without power in New England in the dead of winter. Makes you wonder."

Well, off to join the crowd with some hot cocoa and a movie. And be grateful that I have the power and heat and able to provide floor space for people to sleep who have no power.

Fran

Hadn't thought about using car to charge cell phone....so many people have given up their landlines for cell phones. Radios are only as good as the people who can make it to the station to broadcast. I imagine this Spring or sooner there will be a run on generators. After a horrific ice storm in Rutland VT, my girlfriend had a Briggs & Stratton generator installed and is she ever grateful! Yes, it was a one time large expense, but well worth it, even in this recent storm.

In the late 80's the Hartford CT area got hit bad and I was without power for almost 4 days. Finally built a fire in my 'traditional' fireplace and learned real fast how it just sucks out what little heat was left in the house. So in this house ('92) had a fireplace insert installed as my street had frequent outages. Used it a few years, then they must have finally fixed the transformers as we haven't had any major outage in the last 5-6 years. At least the stove is there and my neighbor has wood for me...

The other thing that bothers me is the conversion of TV signals to digital. I always had a battery TV available (and used it a couple of times.) On the web I just learned that there is one company making battery tvs that will work with the new digital signal and that others should hit the market in the next year. I sure hope we don't have anymore storms like this until more battery tvs are available, and at a reasonable cost!

My thoughts and prayers are with all of you that are suffering and praise to those that are helping those without power.

Interesting information about the downed trees and the diseased ones! I hadn't thought about that!

Good point about signal and ATV vs. DTV

But battery tv doesn't cut it for me...I have one in the basement, but I didn't even drag it out. Out here in the boonies I have no signal. I need cable to get anything.

A generator idea is a good one. I might look into getting one. What about keeping gas on hand to run one though? How long do they run? I saw a thing on TV about long lines for gas with a single gas station open in some area.

Another lack of communication thought I had was about a laptop. It would be nice if there was Wifi everywhere and a charged laptop could get some information. But I suppose somewhere wi-fi gets electricity at the source. Satellite wi-fi?

We didn't lose power, and I have come to appreciate how lucky we were because I have a friend who lives a few miles away in Shrewsbury who lost power at 5 A.M. Friday morning and still hasn't gotten it back. He and his fiancee spent Friday night at one friend's apartment and last night at another friend's house because the temperature in their house is down to about 40 degrees. They're hoping to get power back today, but it might take until Monday or even later. I'm really surprised that it takes that so long to restore electricity, but I don't know anything about the whole process.

At my place, our white pine lost several large branches and a lot of smaller ones, and a couple of other trees dropped some branches too, but there was no loss of power. A lot of trees in the neighborhood dropped branches of various sizes.

Wendy,
Another lack of communication thought I had was about a laptop. It would be nice if there was Wifi everywhere and a charged laptop could get some information. But I suppose somewhere wi-fi gets electricity at the source. Satellite wi-fi?
My iphone has internet service 24/7 regardless of location when I am out of Wifi range there are two other sources (all be it slower) that the phone will connect to in order to get on line. For example I could be driving down I95 and post on gw. The fact that my phone is connected to the internet at all times as opposed to my selecting Safari or Internet Explorer on my lap top is what makes the service so dog gone expensive but frankly I am in love with this phone as is anyone else I know who has one. I suspect like most technology this will work it's way into the main stream and come down in price in no time.

I think part of the problem here from a political action point of view is that only part of the state (northern MA) was hit by the ice storm. Boston and the immediate surroundings, including all points to the south were not touched by this event. This creates "less urgency", I think, on the part of state officials, who when looking out their Boston windows, just see a normal winter day. It is unfortunate, but I suspect that might be part of the problem. And as far as the media is concerned, they are more excited about the tree branch that broke through a roof.....quoting the obnoxious channel 7 team: "And wait till you see where it landed"!!!----they advertise with a glimmer in their eye. They are indeed a pathetic bunch. I suspect NECN is probably doing the best job covering this event.

I agree about NECN, Rockman. Wish I knew how to get it on radio when that's all I have.

Did you see today's Sunday Globe? Hundreds of thousand of homes and businesses still without power--and most of those represent multiple people in each home or working for a business--but the story is relegated to a small column in the metro section.

kt, another toy?!??! I think I've resisted that one because it seems too hard to justify to pay for TWO isp's. I could get internet on my regular LG with Verizon, but I haven't yet seen a big benefit. Yeah, its all about pricepoints..

Note I have no trouble justifying paying hundreds and hundreds of plants including duplicates (just finished indexing and tallying 2008 purchases... oh my...), but two ISP's??? I'm not there yet :-)

However, that certainly is a solution to communication when power is out. Ginny, necn.com would work on your iphone!!

Another thought is that I would think a cable modem and wireless router should be able to work on backup battery power for quite some time. The router doesn't need a pc. I have a backup battery for my PC. Maybe I should reconsider what's hooked up to it.

Hello all,
Sorry to hear about those of you who had damage and power loss. And more sorry to those we havent heard from yet who still are powerless.
I live in shrewsbury and we went 48 hours without power. There are tons of trees down in my area and 7 power lines down on my little street. Thankfully the work crews removed the trees in the street and got power going...I myself am very happy with the level of help everyone has offered and impressed with the restoration of power in such a short period of time.
My 2 year old and 5 year old were shockingly good throughout the whole experience. Absolutely not one single complaint about cold or boredom or lack of tv. We got a fire going and huddled in the living room. We said we were pretend camping and read books by candlelight and did crafts by the fire. My wife traveled south to buy box of joes for the work crews to stay warm and show our appreciation. When life gives you lemons....
I myself am only bummed about the plant destruction. I lost a beautiful lilac that was here for greater than 50 years (split in half and lying on the gound). My newly planted blue spruce fat albert is snapped in half (and this was a memorial tree for our dog who just died). And lots of limbs off the evergreens and maples and oaks in the back. Lots of work ahead means lots of firewood for next year. Any thought as to how to possibly save the blue spruce or lilac?
My sympathies again to all who have suffered. This sort of event really makes you appreciate that we have electricity and power in the first place. Think of our ancestors and settlers....I am blessed to have my computer back and my cable and warm water and aahhh, a shower.
sunshineboy

The loss of power sure does make one appreciate the "finer things in life". Things like the electricity, hot water, heat.

Grateful that mine wasn't out that long, and once back, I was able to provide warmth and comfort to friends that where still without the power.

Sunshine boy,
back about 25 years ago, we had a bad storm in December and I too, had the same kind of damage to a lilac bush that was here for at least 35 years.

Being new to my home of only 5 years and not knowing what to do about the damage, I did nothing till the spring.

Come mid April, hubby and I decided that, for lack of any better idea, we cut back the split down the middle trunk. The poor lilac bush looked about as dead as a doornail and I figured all I was doing was cleaning up the mess.

BUT, just to be safe, I made sure to give the poor bush plenty of extra water and hope for the best.

To my surprise, come June, there was fresh new growth coming out of the base of the bush and it continued to grow all summer into the fall. Actually got to about 3 feet before winter.

Following spring, there was a small number of blooms and it continued since then.

Now you would never know that the damage had been done.

So the most you can do is clean up the mess, and hope that come next spring and summer, you will be as lucky as me.

Fran

Sunshine Boy: unless your lilac's roots were somehow
damaged, your 50-year-old pride and joy will be coming back. . .
extreme pruning, literally to the ground, is fairly standard practice for rejuvenating lilac shrubs. So, just
clean up the mess in late winter/early spring and as Fran
has indicated, you should be pleasantly surprised. . .it
will take a few years, of course, but it ain't over yet!

The dwarf Albeta spruce - well, if it responds like other
conifers I've dealt with that have been decapitated, it may
just send up a new PAIR of leaders and grow on into a
rather interesting speciman. . .my inclination would always
be to clean it up, give it lots of TLC and see what Mother
Nature has in store.

My condolences to all you folks having a rough time right now. . .in a rather perverse way, I'm actually envious. . .
one of the things I always valued about my being a Yankee,
is that we constantly seemed to be being "tested" by the
weather, but somehow we always prevailed and emerged a bit
tougher. Maybe that's just my romantic remembrance of
growing up in Massachusetts. . .

Survive and thrive !

Carl

I did a ton of cleanup yesterday in the nice weather. Boy, that pine tar gets everywhere. yuck.

One thing I noticed was that all the branches that fell among the shrub borders seemed to miss almost all the shrubs. Or the shrubs managed to deflect them somehow without damage. I was worried about my three 5-6' hollies that are right in the thick of pine trees, but they were fine with big thick branches on the ground all around them.

The only shrub that had broken branches from falling pine branches was a forsythia (which needed pruning anyhow). But in the spirit of turning lemons into lemonade, I snipped all the ends and am going to try to force them to bloom. Its a few months early, but it should be interesting to see if they bloom. They are in a bucket of water now in the garage. I'll bring them in the house in a week or so.

Thanks Fran and Carl. During cleanup yesterday, I learned there were 3 holes and a tree in the back of my shed. I was wondering if I could treat my shed like a lilac? If I cut it down to the ground, will my shed grow back and flower?
Wendy--yes, my hands also are black and sticky from that magical pine tar. Yuck!

Wishing warmth and dryness and plant health to all during the holiday season--greg

I hope everyone will give a thought to the many still without power so long after the storm--and with three more storms forecasted in the next five days.

We have friends west of Boston near 495. They are still without power--have three very small children, including a baby. They have a borrowed generator but it's been very tough.

This was a bad one and lots of folks are still enduring the effects.

Did you notice that few if any from NH have contributed to this discussion? We only got back our electricity on Monday.Spent 4 days with no water, or electricity and the only heat was from wood stove in the fireplace. 4 feet away from the stove you were in the freezing cold.Great fun in an old drafty farm house.Felt like I was back in pioneer days. Had to chop the ice in rain barrel to get water to flush the toilets. Luckily the pipes didn't freeze.Branches and trees are still down everywhere in this area.There are still 50 thousand families without power.But I still love New England and would not want to live anywhere else.

Annie, you are a real trooper. Glad you made it thru in good spirits. Hmmm...spirits of the liquid sort would help!!!

And now we are in for snow Fri & Sun so the outside cleanup will be greatly hampered.

I work in Nashua and my company had been planning its "Holiday" party at Parkers in Mason tomorrow... not any more...They will probably be out for a long time out that way. Several co-workers are still out too.

On Greater Boston the other night I heard an interesting explanation of why this storm was worse than most ice storms. The guest was Mish Micheals (weather person on WBZ TV). She said that the dynamics of the way the ice formed caused the severe damage. Cold air settled in from the top atmosphere (top down) and the warmth of the ground kept the lower branches from freezing while the upper branches froze solid and became top heavy. Then of course topped on to the power lines and broke trees in half, etc. And she said that is why there were few icy roads and spin outs like there are in a regular ice storm (the ground was still warm enough not to freeze). It was an interesting explanation in any case!

As of now here in SW coastal CT we have 10-12" of snow so far. Temp is in high 20's and it seems like we don't have anything disasterous to report.
Major problem probably will occur on Sunday when second wave of rain+snow storm will arrive and temp will drop from high 30s in a midday to a low teens in late pm.