Most of you know that we live in New Hampshire and if you’ve paid any attention to the national (and, from what I hear, international) news you know that we got WHALLOPED this past weekend from a huge freakish October snow storm (and this on the heels of that hurricane just a few weeks ago.)
We ended up getting about 9 inches of snow, which is not really a big deal in January when the trees are bare and have slowly hardened in the winter cold, but it is a big deal when the leaves are still on the branches. And that’s the situation we faced going into the storm, only the maples had dropped their leaves, the rest of trees were in trouble.
I’ve lived in New Hampshire a long time and have never been through a storm quite like that one. Power lines up and down our street were sparking as the snow laden trees bowed down to brush them, leaves igniting.
I called 911 when we saw the electrical lines were lighting up and was put on hold.
Around 10:30 p.m. as we walked around the neighborhood we saw that a tree on our property was actually on fire.
I called 911 when we discovered the fire and was put on hold.
It certainly felt like end-times.
I had read predictions that the storm would be catastrophic.
They were right.
The resulting destruction is amazing. Wires are strewn across roads, limbs and full trees are down everywhere. We lost some grand old long-time standing beauties during this one. Such a shame.
In our town alone, 98% lost electricity. Here it is Tuesday morning and we still don’t have electricity at our house. The most current predictions are that we’ll get it back sometime on Friday or Saturday.
We don’t have a generator or a wood stove. We have a cold, drafty house with no water. (Trust me, we’re in discussions to change this.)
Even still, we’re fortunate. This is a photo of a limb that missed our henhouse by inches, you’ll be happy to know that all of our chickens came through the night unscathed.
too close for comfort
Nothing fell directly on our house and the tree fire sputtered out once the power lines went dead. Our dog; Pippin is safe, the kids are fine (even Emma who was diagnosed with croup the morning of the storm.) We’re inconvenienced but what are you going to do? Life happens. We’re spending nights at a community shelter and days between the cold house, the local library, and the shelter.
We’re all warm and safe and counting our blessings to be among the lucky ones.
