The New England Ice Storm of 2008 (a Shelter-In-Place log)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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This was a thread I posted on Candlepowerforums hence the flashlight-focus, but it may also be useful here;

The New England Ice Storm of 2008

Right now we’re reeling from the aftermath of a massive ice storm that plowed through the New England area on 12/11/08, Maine has been hit especially hard, over 220,000 homes are without power, mine included, York County, where I live has been absolutely slammed, estimates are 75,000 homes without power

Central Maine Power is expecting repairs to take two to three days, air temps are in the thirties during the day, plummeting at night

I work in Portsmouth, NH, and estimates in NH are half a million without power!, we had no power at work, so we closed and went home

the storm started last night, this will be my thread documenting the tools used during this storm

12/11/08; power went out at approx. 10:45 PM EST, and has remained off, multiple tree limbs down all over our roads, wires down, it’s an absolute mess, we lost a massive branch off one of our maple trees, fell into the field, so no damage to the house, thank Og

Last night, lighting was handled mainly by my oil lamp, a basic hurricaine lamp, and my Princeton Tec EOS headlamp for walking around, I turned in a short while after the power outage

It’s funny how the warm, orange light of an open flame is so much more comforting and eye-pleasing than the cold, sterile white of an LED, the oil lamp is a much more pleasing, comforting light than the EOS, the EOS is far, far more useful though, not to mention, safer!

12/12/08; got into the car this morning, plugged in my voltage inverter, and plugged in my MacBook’s charger, to charge it’s depleted battery, drove in to work dodging downed branches and power lines, got in, hung around for a couple hours, borrowed the fully-charged MacBook battery off the display machine and watched a movie on my MacBook, until it was clear power wasn’t coming back on, drove around for a few hours to charge up my 'Book’s battery (yes, I swapped back before I left) and charge up my cell phone off the car charger

Got home, and prepared for the evening, water, all set, lit a fire in the woodstove and fireplace for heat, I have a decent backstock of primary cells, AAA, AA, C, D, and CR123a, then got out the lighting tools

area light was handled by oil lamps and Candleier Candle Lanterns, and as far as flashlights go, the high-powered monsterlights were set aside for emergency use, they’re loads of fun, but when you’re dealing with a multi day outage, RUNTIME is of paramount importance

Lights I’ll have available for use during the outage;
Princeton Tec EOS
Inova X5 running on “dead” batteries from my SureFires
EternaLight ErgoMarine
Inova X1 V2 (5mm LED in reflector)
Fenix E01
Arc AAA-P CS and DS
Eveready 2AA “Plastic Fantastic” with MJLED
Fenix L1P
Mag 2C with MJLED
Mag 2C with MagLED module
MagLED 3D
MiniMag with red Nite Ize 3 LED upgrade
SureFire A2 on LED (mainly red)
SureFire E2L Outdoorsman (single level model)
NovaTac 120P on setting 1 (.08 Lumen) and level 2 (10 lumen)

At the moment, the current users are the PT EOS, the Eveready with MJLED, and the Inova X5

12/13/08;
Power still off at home, NO SIGN OF ANY CMP TRUCKS YET!!!, yet York village has power, supposedly they’re “still evaluating” the situation, ARRRGGGHHH!!!

We have power at work, though, so I’m posting from work, I’m also pulling the gloves off when it comes to CMP…
CMP has an automated “outage reporting” system, where you call the number, enter your phone number and it supposedly prints a work order, but what it really does is placates the caller so they think the problem’s being handled…

And I just found out from the news today that CMP apparently “Didn’t take this ice storm seriously” until TODAY!, FRAKKING INCOMPETENT MORONS!!!

So, the gloves are coming off, I’m printing out a note to put on the front counter for all our Maine customers, a note that has CMP’s CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS phone number, a number that IS staffed by a live person, they’re going to get a lot more calls about this power outage, prepare to SQUIRM, CMP! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

oh, and I haven’t had to use any lights yet, as it’s still afternoon, I’ll update tomorrow, even if we’re closed here, I’ll come in to use the internet and power

Oh, and for any Maine Dopers suffering under CMP’s incompetence, CMP’s corporate number (availible publically on their website) is;
1-800-565-0121

To make matters worse, tonight it’s supposed to get down to 14 degrees (it’s 19 now) Farenheit, luckilly our house is a 200+ year old Colonial with three fireplaces, and a woodstove in the sunroom, if we had no fireplaces we’d be hurting more than we are

We have about a cord or so of wood in our dry cellar, and I picked up a box of those compressed sawdust Fire Logs for the fireplace (the one in the kitchen is the primary fireplace), I’ll definitely be adding them to our preparedness kit, they’re a great, efficient source of light and heat

I’ll probably stay late here at work, off the clock, until I’m ready to go home and go to sleep, I may even crash on the floor or couch downstairs in front of the fire, as upstairs is most likely going to be frigid

I will also be calling CMP’s Outage Reporting line AND their Corporate line EVERY DAY until power is restored, if they don’t want to hear me ripping them a new one, they’d better damn well get power back ON, it’s on in Eliot, and in York Village, so there’s no logical reason why our road should be out, unless they’re ignoring it

Anyone want to join an Angry Mob? we’ll use high power flashlights instead of flame-based torches (Hotwires, HID, and MonsterLED’s welcome ) and pitchforks and other Sharp-N’ Pointy things and storm CMP’S offices…

12/14/08;
Still no power…

Still no CMP truck…

Posting from work again because they have heat, light, and Internet, hmm, maybe I should grab my sleeping bag and crash here…

Called CMP Corporate again, actually spoke to a nice woman who explained the situation, we’re most likely one of the last houses on the trunk line, they expect to have the crews out in force today (yeah, like i believe that!)

The Pine Mountain firelogs work brilliantly, nice tall, bright flame, has a nice floody output, good thermal dissapation, and decent runtime (3 hours full power with a half-hour “Moon Mode” it almost seems semi-regulated, and it drains the power source completely dry, very efficient (hmm, I sense a review coming up…), if you have a fireplace in your house, DEFINITELY add these to the emergency kit, they’re highly reccomended

Last night, bedroom lighting was handled by hurricane lamp and Candelier candle lantern, PT EOS used for all other general duties, occasional use of NovaTac 120P when bright light was needed

Other musings for this Shelter-In-Place situation, as this is a great simulation of how a PAW would go down in New England…

First; utility companies and the authorities cannot and should not be relied upon, given how quickly and effectively they were overwhelmed by this ice storm, and due to the extent of the damage, it’s a given we’re dealing with multiple days without power, heat, or electricity

my nephew and niece are handling it well, in fact, they’re having a grand old time, they’re looking at it as an extended campout in a very sturdy “tent”, and since my parents house is the only house in our family with fireplaces and a woodstove, everyone’s crashing here for the evenings…

We have plenty of food in the pantry, plenty of water on reserve (6 of those 5 gallon water jugs used on water coolers), about a cord or so of wood in the basement, I will also be adding those Pine Mountain firelogs to the emergency kit, and the house has three fireplaces in addition to the woodstove, which is in a sunroom with thermal tiles on the floor

We’ve closed off the non-essential parts of the house, and have concentrated on just heating the sunroom, kitchen, and living room, bedrooms are unheated, but each bed has a large quantity of blankets and comforters covering it, bundling up in bed is quite toasty warm, put on a ski hat to prevent heat loss through your head, and you’ll be toasty warm as long as you’re wrapped up in bed

Thankfully, there has been no need to bring out the firearms, as people here tend to pull together during these kind of disasters, right now everyone’s just righteously pissed off at CMP for their sheer incompetence, that said, I Can kind of understand what would drive some people to try to take from others in a situation like this, driving up our road and seeing a house with its lights on and not being sure if it’s because they got their power back, or because they have a generator humming away I feel a definite surge of jealousy and anger, why do they have power and we don’t?, dammit, I DESERVE power too! I’m freezin’ my mivonks off here!

Things I’ve learned so far;

We’re well prepared food and waterwise, we have plenty of warm clothes and blankets, a good stash of emergency lighting and batteries, but what we’re deficient on is power, given CMP’s sheer incompetence and idiocy, it’s insane that we don’t have a generator, especially considering that we have a diesel garden tractor (Kubota G5200) that we could use to drive a generator coil, assuming they make one for tractors…

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My aunt and uncle and their two small children who live in southern NH were out of power both Friday night and last night. An hour and a half north of them, I had no troubles, oddly enough. Luckily, their power’s back on as of this morning, although they have no phone or internet. Good wishes to you, MacTech, and everyone who’s stuck without power.

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Yeah, best of luck. Glad you’re well prepared.

This may sound insensitive, but: pictures?

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Here’s some pics from the Seacoastonline paper Pic #11 is within walking distance from work

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It’s weird, because I’m just over the border in Vermont, and we hardly got hit at all. We got a couple of inches of snow, which kind of froze over, but no real problems. We lost power for a minute or two a couple of times, but not long. People all around us were reporting outages of hours, though, and tree branches are down all over. Strange.

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I just talked to my mother in NH; she doesn’t expect to get power back until the end of the week. Apparently the connections have been pulled entirely out of her house. Fortunately, she has a wood stove, which will keep her warm, and on which she can cook. She was blocked in for a couple of days, but people have finally gone down and moved some trees (and powerlines) off the road.

My sister, brother-in-law, and niece are sleeping in the living room of their house, 'cause it’s the only place that’s warm.

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Sounds like you were well prepared.

Not being nitpicky, but curious - was this:

about two things at once? One about the fire logs and one about one of the emergency lamps? Or am I not understanding the mysteries of fire logs? :slight_smile:

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My county, Penobscot, hasn’t seemed to be hit too hard, if at all.

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Rockingham County, NH checking in and we got socked. Lost power around 11 PM Friday and just got it back about four hours ago. We aren’t the rugged woodsy survival types so it was pretty stressful all around. Ma and the stepdad shuttled hither and yon to places that had light and heat while I stayed home and stood guard with the greyhound. Lotta downed branches, lotta snapped wires, and the local provider swamped to the point where they refused to provide any more specific estimate than “several days” for restoral of power.

On the upside, the stargazing out here was the best I’ve seen in years; despite the full moon I got an eyeful of Geminids. But I’m damned glad it’s over and I don’t have to bury myself in blankets to stay warm.

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I’m in Rockingham County too, well, not right this minute. The power went out around 11pm Thursday night and is still out. I was already all warm and cozy in bed so things were fine. Friday was cold and the roads looked awful so I stayed inside and bundled up the more the temperature dropped. It’s dark by 4:30 so night came quickly, and sitting in the dark trying to read with a flashlight gets tiring so I went to bed pretty early. Again, under the blankets was fine so even though the house was getting colder by the minute, I didn’t notice. Saturday morning, having to get dressed while it was 40 degrees inside was difficult though. I don’t have a fireplace or any type of generator so by Saturday late morning I was packed and ready to head to my parents house near NYC. I will be here until my power returns (or my boss insists I come back to work, although I doubt that will happen).

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Hope you’re back on soon. Hampstead’s up (at least around 111) but getting over to Danville, Kingston, and Newton it’s still dark (or was around 8).

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Great. Freezing rain and sleet in my forecast here in the midwest. I hope we don’t get this amount of ice. Ugh.

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We only had snow in northern VT, no ice at all, so we’re doing okay. But I know from past ice storms how bad they can be, so here’s hoping everything can get fixed and people get helped out as quickly as possible.

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12/15/08;
STILL NO FRAKKING POWER, NO SIGN OF CMP TRUCKS!!!

This is getting old FAST, yesterday, some drone from CMP called, asked if we had power, we told them no, they said a crew had been assigned to our street…

We have not seen a SINGLE truck!!

FRAKKING LIARS!

I called Corprate, and got the standard boilerplate LIE “we’re doing the best we can, please be patient”

Look, ASSHOLES, it’s been FIVE DAYS, our house is FREEZING, we have not seen a single CMP truck, you claimed that you assigned a crew to our street at 11:15 AM 12/14/08, there have been NO CMP vehicles of any sort, stop lying to CYA, we know you’re not even trying, you don’t even care!

I called the outage reporting line, got through to a person, this jerk says that it’s going to be another couple of days and there’s nothing we can do about it…

URGE TO FORM ANGRY MOB…RISING!!!

MUST RESIST URGE TO NUKE CMP!!!

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Woohoo! I get to work from home today. :smiley: And it’s such a beautiful day out! There’s no power at my workplace in Essex co. The strange thing is, we did have power there on friday.

I only lost power at home (NH coast) for a few hours early friday morning (although my cable and thus internet was out until saturday). Maybe because there’s no trees here at the beach?

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Not to hijack, but if you’re without power for several days in your monthly electricity bill reduced to compensate?

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Generally speaking, you won’t pay for power while it’s out, since you did not use any. This may take a while to catch up, as many power companies bill monthly based on average usage, and only check the meter every two (or more) months.

However, you will still have to pay any service charges, taxes, fees, etc that are not dependant on the amount of power used. I’ve never seen any power company discount these based on the amount of time I’ve been out of power. Even if they did, they would just have to increase the cost on the other end to pay all the linemen to get it working again.

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We’re in Mont Vernon, southern NH. No power or phone at home yet. Our landlord surprised us and managed to get a generator yesterday to protect his pipes and in the process make life a lot easier for us. I think he waited in line all day at CostCo.

Tree branches down everywhere. Luckily we’re close to Milford which, at least in the downtown area, didn’t lose power. Restaurants and supermarkets etc are all open. I feel for the people way up north. Hopefully they’re better prepared than us fringe urban types and, unlike us, hopefully they have a woodstove or something as an alternative heat source.

I saw power company crews working in our area this morning so hopefully they’re getting closer.

I saw someone who looked like he was selling generators from a trailer on the side of the road in Milford last night.

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Ouch, sorry to hear that.

I remember in 1994 when my Dad was without power for like 10 days in North Mississippi. Some ppl in Memphis were out a month.

But it’s not nearly as cold here !

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Ice storms are the worst thing. You can’t get around and the power poles are all down. Meanwhile you watch your thermostat in the house hoping you don’t have to deal with freezing plumbing. You can deal with cold by dressing in clothes and a pile of comforters if needed. I always wished I could afford a propane or natural gas generator wired into the house and ready to come on during an outage.

I hope you get the power on in the whole area soon.