Power outages everywhere

This was a very odd storm. Where i live there was no damage. Nothing not even a branch down in my yard. Was all rain. If i drove 2 miles down the road it was crazy and its not about elevation.

There were trees down in one place and 1 mile down the road there was nothing.

I give people alot of credit that have been without power since last Friday........it just makes you notice how much we depend on electricity.

zeta said:

Only 10? Lol. Have a peek at how many on CL in my area: [url"http://boston.craigslist.org/"]linky[/url]

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Holy crap, that's a LOT of generators for sale. If someone couldn't find one there to meet their needs/price range, there's a problem. Pellet stove users in your area should be paying attention and picking up a good deal now while their available.

Within reasonable distance anyone looking should check often!

Bought 20 bags of Pennington h/w pellets..........i have 2 ton of Hammers Hot which is my all around favorite h/w pellet........best heat and hardly no ash. Perfect!

But i've seen alot of people that have not had good luck with Pennington. Odd........location of where they are made? Not sure..........stove setting?

Picked up 20 bags at 5.00 a bag.........just for backup.....

ilikewood said:

Power not expected to come up for another 7-10 days in Westminster, MA.
Its been tough...especially on our Fire Department.

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That's a tough break, having a fire truck incapacitated that way. My husband saw that same thing happen to a state police cruiser up in Blandford. We probably won't see him home until Saturday of Sunday. ( He's an electric co. lineman.)
Hang in there It'll be over at point!

We finally got power restored by some linemen from South Carolina at 2:30 pm Tuesday. Power was out 111 hours on my road in Barre MA. There are still many many thousands of people without power here in North Worcester County. My parents among them in Holden MA. Luckily they have a wood stove that heats their whole house. We had to abandon ship here and live with them because of our 13 month old daughter. It was 36 degrees in the house Saturday Morning. I was finally able to get a generator yesterday to pump the 3' of water out of my basement. and run a salamander heater to raise the temp in the house. Oil furnace, water pump, electric water heater, freezer, all among the 3' of water in the cellar because my sump pump obviously was not working. Thursday night was probably one of the scariest weather I've ever experienced. every 45-60 seconds there was what sounded like a rifle shot and then the crash of the branches hitting the house. We have, er had, a large amount of white pines all around. the needles collected the ice, and then snapped right off under the weight. It was unreal. Until today, NO ONE in Rutland, or Princeton had power. Now 6% in Princeton have power restored, and the 2 state roads in Rutland are up and running. everywhere you look, all you see are broken trees, not just limbs, entire trees split. This is one time where you can't exaggerate - you can't even explain it. We had minor damage to our house compared with others: only 2 small limbs thru the roof, and a split window sill. My furnace may be ruined, but the water pump and water heater are up an running. We listened to talk Radio thru the whole ordeal, because that was the only communication link. The radio station had no power or phone lines either. they had a generator, and a cell phone that people would text in updates and the radio guys would announce the messages. finally able to get to sleep in my own warm bed for first time in 5 nights, and I'm very fortunate, compared to many others I know of.....

edit: see all the pines in the background of my avatar? many are now mostly only bare trunks with no limbs...

Wow, Justin...
Sorry to hear about all of the damage and your long outage. I can't imagine what it must have been like hearing those limbs crashing down.

Are you planning to invest in a generator in case of future storms?

ilikewood said:

Power not expected to come up for another 7-10 days in Westminster, MA.
Its been tough...especially on our Fire Department.

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Ouch!! I bet the Chief was not too pleased about that.....

wilbilt said:

Wow, Justin...
Sorry to hear about all of the damage and your long outage. I can't imagine what it must have been like hearing those limbs crashing down.

Are you planning to invest in a generator in case of future storms?

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definitely! I need to make the power output cleaner from a generator though to run the stove.

ilikewood said:

Power not expected to come up for another 7-10 days in Westminster, MA.
Its been tough...especially on our Fire Department.

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Damn, we got lucky in Concord, NH. Power went out Friday night for a few hours then kicked back in. We are looking at generators but we seem to be in a zone that doesn't get affected much. Most of my co-workers have been without power for many days.

Feeling grateful for being toasty in Concord while power lines are down as close as Bow and Dunbarton.

coldinnh said:

ilikewood said:

Power not expected to come up for another 7-10 days in Westminster, MA.
Its been tough...especially on our Fire Department.

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Damn, we got lucky in Concord, NH. Power went out Friday night for a few hours then kicked back in. We are looking at generators but we seem to be in a zone that doesn't get affected much. Most of my co-workers have been without power for many days.

Feeling grateful for being toasty in Concord while power lines are down as close as Bow and Dunbarton.

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Yeah, Cold... you did get lucky.... so did we, other than being without parent # two for over a week.... but we're used to that. (he's been gone since Friday, 4:30 am) It gets old fast, but it's better than being out of power like so many right now. We have it both ways at once, which was NOT GOOD! (but we dealt with it).

We had power outages here in Central Maine, some tree damage, but nothing like what is in the southern part of the state and in NH and Mass. We did have that same type of storm 10 years ago. The crackling of trees breaking day in and day out. Power was out for two weeks. Kids home on military leave with their families all in one house! Still have moments of PTSD about this. One word of caution. Don't be too quick about cutting down trees that have lost many branches and their tops. We were told our white birch would never come back. Looked like a log with big tooth picks. But now, in the summer, you would not want that tree taken down. Many branches came back in and filled it out. When the leaves are off, you can still see the big trunk with the stubble branches, but each year it gets better. I have seen hundreds of trees in the woods that were left alone and now look just fine. If the tree is dangerous, that would be different, but for others, you may want to clean up the mess and let them grow a few years to see what they will do.

sydney1963-

You have the best avatar i've ever seen! Did you do that yourself?

We finally got our power back after almost 9 days of outage. The only good thing tht came out of it is my pellet stove is more capable than I thought it was. Typically, the pellet stove heats the downstairs and my upstairs furnace does the 2nd floor. My upstairs furnace was not on the generator so the pellet stove was all I had to heat my entire 3400 square feet home. I kept it cranked up to a about 75, burning around 2 bags per day. Downstairs was comfortable and upstairs was cooler but still not bad at about 62. This is even when outside temperature was in single digits. If pellets weren't so expensive and propane more reasonable, i would continue to have the stove heat my entire house. however, not really worth it given the cost of pellets vs. propane.

wilbilt said:

I'm wondering why stoves with direct 12V operating capability aren't more popular.

Thelin, Magnum, Dell-Point, etc.

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I'm looking at ways to add in a small solar that can keep a few batteries charged. I'll compare that cost with a genny and see what the difference might be. I suppose one battery with a charger should be quick on my list, but I like the idea of a small solar project to experiment a little bit with, rather than a larger system that I'd be very upset with having broken.

I own a Magnum and am happy to see that I even have the option of 12V backup. This can be a very handy thing, I am hoping.

friend of mine works at Manchester, NH Lowes,before the employees showed up for work, there was a line down the front of the building like black friday, friday after the storm.
My employer has an automatic generator it came on thursday night and quit 3 hours later, when I left work at 1:30 am the hangar was completely black. turns out the coolant loop had a leak and they had to add coolant every 2 hrs. then the power came back on fri night and our hangar (out of three) was missing a phase. some outlets worked some didn't, the compressor out, overhead lights switching on and off randomly, HEAT INOP! they didn't get that fixed until monday morning. and because the power wasn't all on correctly the stupid generator stayed on all weekend. the airport itself was running completely on generators until some time saturday.