2008/2009 Winter Storms

Ice storm leaves 1 million without power
'It's pretty ugly,' N.H. man says as storm socks New England, upstate N.Y.
The Associated Press
updated 9:48 a.m. PT, Fri., Dec. 12, 2008

CONCORD, N.H. - An ice storm knocked out power to more than a million homes and businesses in New England and upstate New York, and authorities say it could take days for all of them to get service back.

The governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire declared states of emergency Friday morning, and schools were closed and travel disrupted across the region.

Power may not return to tens of thousands in Massachusetts until Monday at the earliest, Gov. Deval Patrick said. "Many of us view that as an ambitious estimate at this point," he told a news conference.

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch urged residents "to take sensible precautions and heed all warnings from public officials."

"I don’t think anyone anticipated it would be as bad as it is," he added.

In Hampstead, N.H., Mark Cegelis said things were hectic at his neighborhood gas station, which was jammed with people trying to get gas for home generators.

"It's kind of lawless out there right now," Cegelis said. "There's a lot of people very frustrated, stacking up at the gas stations. It's pretty ugly."

He bought 21 gallons for himself and tried to deliver some to some friends in Derry but couldn't get there because of downed trees blocking roads. So his friends came to him instead, and were expected to hunker down until power was restored.

In eastern New York, particularly around Albany, the state capital, outages brought the total in the state to more than 235,000.

"Trees were down on all the roads," said Miguel Figueroa as he waited for coffee at a store in Colonie, N.Y. "... I couldn't even get on the Thruway today."

350,000 in dark in Mass.
Fire departments across New Hampshire were responding to reports of transformer explosions, wires and utility poles down and trees falling on homes.

Gov. Patrick's emergency declaration in Massachusetts, where 350,000 were without power, would enable the governor to take further steps, such as mobilizing the National Guard, if needed as the day wore on, officials said.

State officials do not even know the full extent of the problem because some towns have municipal utilities.

At least 20 Massachusetts towns declared local states of emergency even before the governor.

"Stay home if you live in Holden, don't come to Holden if you work here," Holden, Mass., fire Chief Jack Chandler said. The entire town was without power and some senior citizens on oxygen were transported to a hospital or a shelter opened at the town's senior center.

"This is a really extreme situation we are experiencing," NBC affiliate WHDH-Boston quoted Jackie Barry, a spokeswoman for National Grid, as saying. The National Grid reported about 100,000 electric customers without power, mostly in the Worcester area and Merrimack Valley.


N.H. outages worse than '98 storm
Utilities in New Hampshire reported 392,000 homes and businesses without power.

Public Service Company of New Hampshire said an unprecedented 230,000 customers " nearly half of the homes and businesses it serves " were without power as of 8 a.m. Friday. The New Hampshire Electric Cooperative said more than 41,000 of its homes and businesses also have no power.

Utility officials in New Hampshire said the outages had far surpassed the infamous ice storm of 1998, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark.

Outages also hit more than 190,000 customers in Maine, at least 25,000 in Vermont, and 4,700 in Pennsylvania.

Farther south, parts of Louisiana and Mississippi are shaking off a layer of snow, a rare occurrence in sections of the Gulf Coast states. Forecasters there have warned that freezing temperatures could make for treacherous driving conditions.