Early Monday
morning of the thirtieth, a category 1 hurricane wind roared through Maine with
gust in excess of sixty-five miles per hour.
There are
approximately one million people in the state and over 400,000 people were
without electricity – in other words, about half the state – we are a rural
state with a lot of trees.
Losing electricity
in the winter is usually not a big deal for us, as we have a wood stove and gas
lights for a backup; but this time of the year the temperatures were around
sixty – and we have a freezer full of meat.
Fortunately, we were only out for a little over thirty-six hours –
getting power back late Halloween eve.
The freezer kept everything frozen so we only lost food in the
refrigerator.
We lived
without electricity for four years while we went through college, and for short
periods off and on here in Maine and when we were in Alaska. We didn’t realize how dependent we have
gotten on TV and the computers until this outage. The first afternoon we played five games of
Scrabble and went to bed about nine-o-clock and read by lamp light. The next day we did another Scrabble
marathon, read – floated around the house aimlessly. We actually cheered when the lights came back
on and we immediately turned on the TV.
the Ol’Buzzard
We have had
electric linemen from as far south as New York up here to help reconnect power
lines. The local electric company says
they expect everyone will have power back by Sunday.
What a mean trick for Halloween! Glad you didn't lose more frozen food, that would have been such a waste. Gawd yes, we're so dependent on power to run the things that entertain us, aren't we?
ReplyDeleteI hope those weren't your cars in that first photo.
ReplyDeleteThis dependence on electricity was impressed on me after Hurricane Andrew. We didn't have power for almost a month. The same for the phone. I hooked up a generator from work, but it mainly took care of the fridge and a couple of low wattage lights. We had a gas range and the gas never went out. Lucky there.
Wow, amazing what wind is capable of. I converted mph to kph and we had a similar wind storm earlier this year responsible for power outages and lots of damage and downed trees. We lost our shed in that storm. Hope everyone is alright!
ReplyDeleteThe power of nature is thrilling! If I were without electricity for that amount of time, I would be happy when the tv came back on. I think husband would miss the internet more than tv. Good to know the freezer keeps things frozen for that amount of time. -Jenn
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't miss TV or my phone. Now the A/C, yes, and the refrigerator that too. I'm a very boring person I guess. I turn off my computer when I finish my blog checking.
ReplyDeleteThose pictures of damage in Maine are very good. That was pretty bad with the trees bringing down the wires. I can just imagine how scary it must have been for everyone. When I heard about the high winds and damage in Maine I instantly thought about you and your wife and hoped you were doing okay.
That first picture... I had a neighbors tree fall on my car & garage some years back. Seeing as it hadn't been reported as a dangerous tree the damage was my problem ("Act of God") and covered by my insurance.
ReplyDeleteAll I had was public liability on the car... I did miss that car.
omg...my friend Daniel Noel lives in Portland and he had no electricity or heat..so some friends that lived in area where they had it let him stay there.I was so worried about him...glad you guys are ok...
ReplyDeleteWe had some pretty wild winds in western Canada a couple weeks ago. Speeds as high as 130 kmph. This was before snow fly and a number of wildfires burned off large areas, causing towns to be evacuated. Several farms burned out, including a friend of mine. He saved the house though. And 750 head of cattle lost. Fighting fire in that wind must have been hell.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea food would last 36 hours in a freezer. We had wind too, but not that bad.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea food would last 36 hours in a freezer. We had wind too, but not that bad.
ReplyDelete