We just got snow, apparently I live too far Upstate for the ice.
Poor little gecko.
I’m sitting in a hotel room in East Greenbush with my 2 year old and my husband. We live in Schodack on a back road, which was another area hardest hit by the storm. We’re warm and have cable and wi-fi, so it’s not as bad as it could be, aside from spending Christmas money anyway. As of an hour ago, we were going to have my mother come down from Massena and meet us halfway in Keene to give her our daughter for the week. My babysitter doesn’t have power either.
I drove all over Rensselaer County this morning while I left my husband to check on our cat at home. One of his sisters didn’t have power, but they had to stay there because of their dog and the other one had power, but I’m not sure for how long because there were a lot of tree limbs hanging over powerlines that looked ready to go down and when I was there for 5 minutes, the lights flickered 3 times.
Twenty minutes ago, I checked the National Grid website using my account number and it said we have power, so my husband went to the house to make sure, but called and said that the furnace wouldn’t kick on. Luckily, I work for the company that installed it and I’m hoping they can call him and walk him through what to do to get it on. If not, it could be a long wait. The on-call guys are probably busy with calls like that. At least we have a space heater and he can warm up the cat. We’ve already paid for the second night at the hotel, so we’re staying here tonight and I’m not confident that the power will STAY on at home.
I don’t know if we’ll have to send my daughter up north or not at this point. I’ll contact my babysitter to see what’s going on over there, but the main thing right now is getting her some care. I had her at work with my on Friday and I got nothing done so that’s out. That really sucked having her tell me she wanted to take a nap and I had to tell her I had nowhere for her to sleep. We ended up being lucky to get a room. An hour after making the reservation, we got there and they were turning people away.
I hope all the other Capital Region Dopers are doing okay.
Sunday, and I still don’t have power. Back at my office - thank goodness no one comes here, and no one cares if I spend the day here, and it’s SO close to home. This time, this office has saved my bacon.
It’s warmed up now, but last night was brutal. They are down to 115,000 people on National Grid without power; 140,000 if you count everyone. Hopefully we’ll get it today or tonight.
you named your gekko bacon?
<grin duck and run>
We got our furnace working at about 6:00 pm last night and stayed at the hotel to let the house heat up and possibly avoid any unexpected outages if they had to work on the lines again.
I had to drive to my babysitter’s house to see if they had power and they don’t, but they have a generator and she said she’d be glad to take Susie tomorrow, so we didn’t have to drive to Exit 30 today and back to send her up north with Grandma.
We’re all exhausted right now and feeling so lucky that we had the Christmas money to spend on a hotel and food for 2 days and got out power back in 36 hours rather than be away from our daughter until Friday and run out of money and live in a shelter until Tuesday or Wednesday.
I’m glad you’ve got some relief at least. I’m hope you get some heat soon. No one should be able to see their breath in their own home and worry about their pet dying. I hope yours is fine. Our cat was cold but otherwise fine and we cuddled when I got home today.
Our gecko is better off than us right now. He’s staying at work; we made him a little sleeping arrangement. Our house is fucking 42 degrees. I am ready to alternately cry or swear but we’re managing to stay cheery.
We finally got a prediction for when our power is going to be back up - Tuesday at 4 PM.
aruvqan, bacon would be a funny name for a gecko. Forgive me if I am short on humor right now, it’s been a rough weekend. Our gecko’s name is Picante.
Far far far northern NY checking in. No real problems, a bit icy. I had the day off so I didn’t wander too far from home because of the wet sleety stuff (wow, that’s really a word? No red underline?). Nothing too far out of the ordinary for this time of year.
I am envisioning a bunch of cowboys sitting around a fire in Texas saying, “Picante…in New York?!”
Old commercial…maybe you had to be there…
We’re supposed to be getting a heap of rain this week, and maybe even snow! (Not particularly common in Las Vegas!)
Were you living there for the ice storm in 1998? My mom lives near Massena and they lost power for a week, but at least had a kerosene heater. A friend of mine was without power or phone service for 2 weeks.
I was living in North Carolina at the time and I remember her calling me, crying about how miserable they were. As bad as this storm is, it’s not as bad as they had it. There are no hotels in her town, so you had to either be in your home and hope you have a heater or generator, or staying at a high school or church that had a generator.
That’s awful. I still can’t believe that Nassau would have power before Colonie and Clifton Park. We’re not even turning on our outside Christmas lights in a show of sympathy to everyone without power. It just wouldn’t seem right.
We lost power about 2 am Friday. I woke up at 4 to discover that not only were we out, but it was out at Siena College (where I work). The last was a partial outage; I got news of the full outage at 6 am.
I have a large pine in the back yard; it was dropping very big branches. One took out my shed (it needed replacement anyway, but still).
We had no power all Friday night. We also had no sources of heat – no wood stove or generator. It was 45 degrees in our house Saturday morning. Our neighbors – who had a generator – invited us over for breakfast, which we gladly accepted.
My brother-in-law showed up Saturday around one. He had a generator – it had never been taken out of the box, and since he had power, we were able to use it to run some space heaters and power the refrigerator and freezer. The house was up to about 60 (which is pretty reasonable for us – we keep our thermostat at 64) when the power went on at 7:30.
On Sunday, my brother-in-law lost his power, so he took the generator back.
At Siena, the campus was off until around 7 pm Friday. They sent all the students home; it was exam week and the exams have been canceled (no word on how they’ll be dealt with). We got computing services up on Saturday, with the exception of the website, which had a dead server and needed a part.
In what would have been ironic if it hadn’t happen so many times before, on Thursday our manager once more pointed out to the senior staff that we needed a generator for the computers.
Power is still out in patches around here. A whole half-mile section of route 7 – a major thoroughfare – had not traffic lights when I drove to work. Two people here at work still are without lights.
I still don’t have power. And probably won’t until WEDNESDAY now. I am ready to scream.
Finally got in touch with my sister in Wynantskill (outside Troy). She was forced out of her house for a couple of days due to falling trees. No serious damage to the house, but her detached garage will need a new roof. She had no power until yesterday afternoon and her and my niece spent a couple of nights at a friend’s.
She’s looking at over $750 dollars just in tree removal expenses, so I just wrote her a check for my last $200 of extra cash. I told her that if she doesn’t end up needing it, she’s to buy presents for herself and my niece and nephews.
I lived in a much harder hit spot in 1998, a little village near Saranac Lake, NY. I was in, what? 8th grade at the time? Lived way out on the backwoods, streets are barely wide enough for two cars and have no painted lines. WOODS.
I used to have, in front of my house, a large grouping of thinish pine trees. I’d say about a football field width left and right and about twice as wide than one or so between the front door and the road.
The ice storm cleared all but about 15, the larger ones near the edges and by the sidewalk are still there.
The only way to get rid of that much bulk of trees was in the spring for me and my dad to pull and tie to tractors and yank all of them into several large piles and burn them. The front yard looked like hell. I’m not kidding you. Several giant burn piles. Worked out great, though, my parents planted a great wildflower field and strawberry bushes up the length of the dirt driveway and they give me a few big jars of the best jam I’ve ever had. Good stuff from all that ash.
Was out of power for 9 days, when school finally was open again, can’t remember how long that was, at least four or five days later, all the openings were an hour later so that people that were out of the town could get dressed and ready in something like daylight. It was at least 3 days before we even tried to go by road to the only gas station four miles away. The first time we gave up. The second time, later that day after they’d cleared some stuff off one of the back roads we made it. There wasn’t all that much at the store but at a fire station not too far away they were giving away some basic supplies. We were pretty set but could use some bread and milk and stuff so they helped us out there. A large branch from a birch tree (was several inches across, then a few more inches of ice added to that) landed partially on the back of my dad’s pickup. Crushed the cap right in on one side.
We heated with wood so it wasn’t a problem, but by day 3 anything in any fridges was starting to be a mess so we had a big party by candlelight for us and a few neighboring families… Everyone brought some stuff to cook on the (gas) stove. I remember it was somewhere around the time of Mardi Gras and we just decided to call it “Fat Tuesday” and had a feast by candlelight.
Many people left to go to hotels up here where I live now in Plattsburgh.
We got a generator on the evening of day 8 by someone who got power back and got it to us… I remember it working… Kinda… cut out often and the lights weren’t lit up the best. The next day we got power back.
That’s about all my memories of the ice storm.
Couple other things I remember after writing that…
On one of the earlier days I remember going into my backyard and listening to the trees outside. There was a good half mile or more between my backyard and the powerlines, then a good quarter mile at least before it hit a lake. Trees would break here and there and come crashing down, one or two a minute. Sounded like a war was going on. “Bang! Crack crack crack! CRAAAASHHH” quiet. then again over and over.
And the few times I’ve heard “Ice Storm” on the news I freak… Even though I know its just a light nothing, some slick roads and some pretty looking half inch thick ice on the tree branches… I have to call my parents to make sure they’re prepared, though… and until its over I’m freaking out. Its always ended up being just that, though, a dud of a storm. Still scares me a bit, though.
Sorry for the rambling on all that… Havn’t thought about it in years and was one of the more crazy events of my childhood.
Hi everybody. Still no power. None until tomorrow night, is what National Grid is saying.
I drive through Saranac Lake to get to my mother’s house. I’ve probably heard of the town you’re from. It sounds like my hometown (Brasher Falls) with a population of about 300 or so. The only traffic light is one blinking red/yellow light and the nearest grocery store is 20 minutes away.
My family still talks about that storm to this day. They weren’t even allowed to travel at all in St. Lawrence County, so the 3 of them were cooped up in that house for a week. The trees and branches were coming down for days, as you described.
Thanks for the updates, it’s good to know you’re doing “okay” (for certain values of okay) and that sucks about the power. Is the gecko still at the office?
Yeah…I think I might have to fight to bring him home. 
He’s like the office mascot.
Going home now to my chilly house. I’ll probably be back at the office later tonight to get away from my cold house. AND they’re talking snow. But I literally live about 2 miles from the office, so…
Thanks.
Anaamika, do you have power yet?
Believe me, I can understand … back when I kept a cockatiel I worried in the winter
and I had a IGgy****uana named pop …