As Jeff says, the unusual October 29 snowstorm toppled trees (which still had leaves) and took down utility wires and poles throughout the northeast US. We got between six and fourteen inches of snow, almost all of which has now melted. More than 2/3 of Nashua, NH lost power and restoration has been slow because of the extent of damage. Some area towns were nearly 100% out. Area Halloween Trick-or-Treating was reschediuled for this coming weekend.
Our Merrimack, NH office, where Jeff, Annalee and I work, was closed until Thursday afternoon. My house just got power back a couple of hours ago - luckily the Internet service came back with it. Crews from Missouri (!) were here all day, removing tree branches, replacing poles and repairing house feeds - a neighbor had the power conduit ripped off their house. A historic home nearby burned to the ground when a falling tree sparked a fire. Many others have had trees through roofs, cars and more. Luckily, my own house had no damage and tree damage was minimal. But as we are at the "end of the line" of the power feed, it took some time for the crews to make their way to us.
It's strange - I have lived in this house for 21 years and the power has never been out for more than a few hours here, though other parts of the city have endured many-day outages in past storms. I finally gave in and bought a generator, which will guarantee another 21 years of no major outages....
It's going to take me some time to catch up on issues here - your patience will be appreciated. My supreme thanks to Wendy, Annalee, Ron and others for filling in for me here.
