The New England ice storm of 2008

[MacTech]

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 lighting 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 Flashaholics suffering under CMP's incompetence, CMP's corporate number (availible publically on their website) is;
1-800-565-0121

 

[Guy's Dropper]

Wow, that's pretty unfortunate, and by unfortunate I mean for everyone else on CPF who wanted a power outage but didn't get one.

In all seriousness, this is one of several reasons why I plan to buy some solar panels and a generator.

 

[StarHalo]

That's a bummer, I've been there before when I lived in the midwest, five days with no power or heat, it's rough.

Hope you've got a good TV-audio tuning radio to keep informed and keep up morale

 

[asfaltpiloot]

Hang in there.
Hope you get power back soon.
Glad to hear you have a few flashlights to help you.

 

[MacTech]

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.....

 

[bobrip]

Looks like you are reasonably prepared. We lost power for seven days during hurricane Isabel. The good news was that the temperature was in the seventies, so heating and cooling was not an issue. We also have two generators and went through a lot of gas. Most gas stations were out of power and the others ran out of gas in 2 or 3 days. My wife actually likes it when there is no power. She is a girl scout and cooks on whatever fire she can find. It also forces everyone into a central room for more good family time. Dominion Power took this outage very seriously and had people already in the area from other states. About 4 million people lost power out of about 6 million in the state. I did not know anybody who did not loose power at least for a few minutes, most were many days. The Eternalite was really useful as the lowest setting will run for about 2000 hours. It makes a good nite light in that mode. Good luck.

 

[besafe2]

Looks like you are prepared but I really feel for you. How you all live in the North & where its real cold is beyond me.

 

[jumpstat]

Hope everyone is okay. Hang in there...all the best...

 

[cruisemissile]

Hope everyone is okay. Hang in there...all the best...

ditto, the cold aint easy., but at least we know you got light.
stay well.!

 

[MacTech]

12/14/08;
Still no power...

Still no CMP truck...

Posting from work 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

 

[chew socks]

I feel your pain man :mecry:i live in Nashua NH and the neighborhood where i live alone has at least 20 power lines laying in the street. Luckily the part of NY where my grandparents live has power so we decide to come here after 48 hours without power.

 

[Mr Happy]

I was struck by this quote from the news stories:

"What is facing us is the apparent need to rebuild the entire infrastructure of some sections of the electrical delivery system," said Martin Murray, a PSNH spokesman.

Sounds like quite a disaster.

 

[Lee1959]

They said the same thing after the big Eastern blackout of 2003 and they are still saying it. They will be saying it after the next one too...

 

[Illum]

I was struck by this quote from the news stories:

"What is facing us is the apparent need to rebuild the entire infrastructure of some sections of the electrical delivery system," said Martin Murray, a PSNH spokesman.

Sounds like quite a disaster.

reminds me of NY's big blizzard several years back that mandated all the powerlines to be installed underground:shrug:


Mother natures mad about something...thats for sure, in one day the entire East coasts under havoc...either snow, ice, or rain. Down in Florida here we've been put under tornado watch in DECEMBER and had hurricane-like winds blow through, but thankfully no serious outage though.

 

[BSBG]

I am in Southern NH, and am the only person I know (besides my neighbors) who did not lose power and most still do not have it. Hang in there...

 

[MacTech]

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!!!

I'm too angry right now to even document flashlight use....

 

[rotncore]

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!!!

I'm too angry right now to even document flashlight use....

I can understand why you're upset, but getting really angry on the internet isn't going to make the repair guys (who I'm sure are putting in 20hr days) go any faster. Take a deep breath, be thankful you don't have any major damage to your property, and keep on hanging on. Maybe volunteer to help out in your community to keep you occupied and spending your energy more positively. I'm sure there are some people in your area worse off than you. I wouldn't be surprised if the utility was prioritizing businesses and institutions first (not being able to open/pay non-salary employees in the weeks before Christmas can cripple if not kill a business, not to mention employees). Frankly I tuned you out when you started raging, but as long as you have food, and water, a method to prepare it, some lighting (you're covered), provisions for basic sanitation, and a way to keep warm you'll be fine. If you are lacking any of these, take note and prepare for next time.

 

[MacTech]

Your points are valid, part of the frustration I'm dealing with here is the fact that CMP claimed they were sending out a work crew yesterday, yet no truck was seen, I'm not alone here, everyone I've spoken to in the area has said the same thing, "we haven't seen *ANY* trucks", it's not just my road, it's the entire area, not just the town of York, people from Eliot, Kittery, South Berwick, Wells, Ogunquit, and more, every one of them says they have not seen any trucks

All I'm asking for is a little honesty here, I wouldn't be (as) pissed off if CMP just came out and said "we've been hit hard and we had to replace the following equipment in the following areas first, we apologize but we're looking at another two days or more before we can get you back on", it's their pretending to care, their saying anything to get you off the line and the distinct lack of any visible work crews that's ticking me off

and the latest update is that we're likely looking at two more days, minimum without power, and there's another storm blowing in from the West......

Yes, we have wood for the fireplaces and woodstove, so we have heat, we have food and water, we have warm blankets, and lighting equipment, so we are prepared, it's just CMP's foot dragging and outright lies that are wearing thin

 

[rotncore]

I hear ya. I apologize if I came off a little harsh in my initial reply, and best of luck in the coming days. Hopefully the second storm turns out not too bad.

 

[Illum]

I think the issue is we've become too dependent on the grid, this isn't anyone at fault, we as a whole are at fault...

down here in Florida, summer time without power means the attic reaches about 120F and the inside of the house gets about 85F at minimal. Forget opening windows, its definitely hotter than 85F outside. Winter time? Floridian houses aren't built to preserve heat, they are built to expel heat and introduce drafts...meaning if the heaters off, a little breeze acts like a chiller fan:shakehead:candle:

Places in upstate NY, man...I don't event wanna think of what might happen in winter if power was out for a week. Back then when heating oil was moderately cheap heating a house using might be feasible...but the prices today? nope. So many of us turn to the grid for more power, to the point where powerplants previously designed for only peak and backup loads are running more often.

East coast backout? I believe it, as long as we are consuming power more than the grid designed for it's gonna happen. With or without mother natures help...its not when, its where

Personally I've been cutting back on both AC and heat...but what scares me is the fact that I can't be independent of it...and having faith in the grid isn't the best of choices:green: