Stormwatch

On Friday, NH's Governor Lynch declared a state of emergency. Hundreds of thousands of people are without electrical power in this state. Overall, the storm knocked out power for a million people.

It appears it will take some time to sort everything out. The situation is widespread enough that crews that normally come in from other states are busy close to home.

On a personal level, my household is fine. Ironically, the grid never went down at my house. My backup systems were in place and ready to go, but were not needed. Outside of having to clean up downed tree branches, it wasn't much of a problem here. There wasn't any need to go anywhere, so I stayed home.

However, my daughter in MA called to let me know she and her husband and daughter were heading to the in-laws place. After a day without power, they'd had enough. Since they have a small baby to take care of, leaving the house for a couple days makes sense. They don't have the backup systems that I do. I wish they did. She asked some advice about how to shut the place down. On the bright side, it looks like temperatures will be mostly above freezing. Their plumbing should be fine. Still, I can't but help worry about them. Doesn't matter how old your kids get, they are still your kids.

I was surprised that their area was still without power. They are on a major route into a good sized city. Usually those areas get fixed pretty quick. It's outlying areas in the woods that take time. Had power gone out here, this area would be one of the last to get fixed -low population density.


In a few days, a week, or maybe a bit longer, the grid should be back up and running. For some people this will be a wake up call. They'll realize how fragile our systems really are and take basic precautions. Others will go back to sleep and avoid learning any lessons from this.

-Sixbears