Ice Storm Pictures

There's nothing like a really good storm, and long term loss of power, to get you to clean your refrigerator out, top to bottom. That's just what I did Sunday night when I realized power might be coming back soon (at least I was hopeful it would). And sure enough, back ON it came yesterday (Monday) morning at 5:20 am.

Unfortunately there are still many thousands going without, including my in-laws who just stopped in a short time ago for lunch and a hot shower. They were told this morning it would be sometime tomorrow evening before power is restored. Keep in mind, they live in a development of seniors and one woman is 82, refusing to leave her home. At least they have gas fireplaces to keep warm and they are very good about checking on each other. One gentleman has been good enough to use his generator to power up the neighborhood water pump so they can fill their tubs to wash up with or flush toilets.

As you can see the ice was extremely thick and heavy coated on everything the freezing rain touched. Lucky the roads were fine. Apparently they were just warm enough to keep them from icing up, not to mention the DOT had salted during the night.

*You should be able to click on any picture to view it larger ... I think. lol!

Beautiful, isn't it? It really was. Everything just gleamed from the ice. At the time I took these pictures I had no idea how bad the storm really was. I assumed that since the ice was melting pretty quickly (at least the ice in the sun) the power would be up and running within a few hours. Boy was I wrong!

I had hoped to show the drops of ice and water hitting the weather made pond, though that's not really what this picture conveys. Once I uploaded my photo's I was struck by how pretty the tree and the reflection in the water were.

And this Red Tailed Hawk was hanging out looking for a warm breakfast on a cold morning.

Yes, the birds were definitely hungry! Does anyone else have more Woodpeckers than normal this winter?

Even my weeping Cherry was beautiful

I had just taken this picture a week or two ago . . .

. . . and on Friday morning it looked like this. Can you believe it has bounced right back up again to it's former glory?! I thought it was a gonner.

My next door neighbors Lilac bush and Birch tree

Looking down through my next door neighbors backyard

Andria really wanted to go down to the Sandy Point Discovery Center since it's on the bay. She thought she could take some great pictures there. Elise and I agree'd to go along. Here Elise is walking on the boardwalk that takes you down to the bay. Amazing how many people were there and most had big fancy camera's, like Andria. It was definitely a day for photography!

Unfortunately I had no room left on my memory card and didn't realize it until we were at the bay. I did manage this one picture though. I wish Andria would show me hers!

This is looking out at my neighbors house. The tree landed on top of the trunk of their daughters car, but no damaged was done. A few minutes after I took this photo my husband went out with his chainsaw to cut the tree up while the owner pulled the brush out in back of his house. You probably can't tell but the large limb pulled the power line right off the pole. Today they are still running on a generator, waiting for someone to come hook the line back up. I'd be willing to bet it will be at least 3-4 days before someone comes out to fix it. The power companies aren't even bothering with individual houses at the moment. Their main concern is to work in area's where they can be the most effective, then they will start in on the individual problems.

Looking at the blades of grass really tell the story. I'd never seen individual grass so covered in ice before. And I took this picture 2 days after the storm.

Ahhhh, what a welcome sight to see on Sunday afternoon as I traveled down another road in town .... the same road that brings power to our house! But as it turned out all they were doing were looking for lines that were down so they could report them.

As I passed the truck and looked in at the driver, he was the same guy my husband and I had spoken with the night before on the next road over from ours. He said he and his co-worker had come off a 30 hour shift and now they were on a 14 hour shift. We couldn't express our gratitude enough for all they have done. Not to mention neither of their families had power either.

I'm sure these people were hoping the truck would stop also! You can see the Unitil guys behind me as I had just passed them.

What a sad sight. This tree was probably 150 years old and now they have to take it down. I couldn't tell how much damage it had done to the house but I'm assuming it just broke some windows. They certainly weren't the only ones this happened too, but it must have come as quite a shock when it fell!

Today our local power company, Unitil is still reporting over 9,000 customers without power in NH, while PSNH is reporting over 95,000 customers without power in NH. This is an unprecedented weather event in our little state. One that I hope we won't have to endure again for a looooooong time!