How bad is it up there?
 

Wow. This storm is turning into a major event, from all I'm hearing. If there's anyone in the Lakes region who still has power, I'm sure everyone on the Forum would appreciate any information about the conditions up there.

Hope everyone is safe....

Still have power - Gilford Village area
 

Rain still coming down. Lots of smaller limbs down on trees all around the house. Ice build up is impressive.

Before daylight I could hear branches snapping and coming down in the woods behind the house. Some "ponding" of water in the yard.

Power has "tripped" off several times but has come back on quickly. :)

Have Power
 

I called my telephone in Moultonborough this morning and the answering machine went off so there still must be power.

wish I could say the same...
 

....tried my answering machine out on Moultonboro Neck...it didn't pick up :(

Looking out across the bay onto Moultonboro Neck, there has been no power there since I got up at 5. The scanner reports downtown M'boro is also without power. In the meantime, my headend in Center Harbor lost power about 30 mins ago. (Don't you wish you had a generator :) )

If you check out the M'boro bay cam:
http://www.lakesregionwireless.net/bay/webcam.html

The tree limbs you see are weighted down by ice, normally they are not visible....

Moultonboro without power
 

We lost power on Moultonboro neck around 6AM. The NH Electric COOP site says over half its customers are without power. I'm running on battery backup and the wood stove is cranking. Amazingly, Time Warner Cable internet is still chugging away. The trees are heavy with ice, but not too bad. The temperature hovered between 30-32 overnight, so the icing was only mild. The ground is covered with a white crust from the sleet that fell yesterday. The lake is way up with all the runoff. It is supposed to get down to 13 tonight and zero on Saturday nite. Fun and games in the lakes region! :rolleye1:

WIFI:
is this your web cam? I love it! where in Moultonborough is it located?
New bookmarked favorite!!!

Kathy,

Yes, it is. Its on Castle Shores looking out at the Orton Shores area of the neck. Here is a picture from one of my security cameras that looks down at the dock. its gives a better view of what the icing is like up here.

Jeesh.....I feel so guilty.......woke up to no power and just fired up the generator.Wifey and I had a nice hot shower and some fresh coffee.There was now power anywhere between Meredith and Moultonborough as we drove to work.Roads weren't all that bad.Guess it's much worse in southern NH.

The red, green & yellow traffic lights around Meredith on route 104 and 25 are/were all dead, and everyone's electricity is/was out. McDonald's was/is closed. Now, that's a true emergency! Noticed that the Irving Gasoline was open....maybe they have a generator....can't pump gasoline w/out power?

It's still coming down as rain with the temp just above freezing. Didn't see any trees down. Driving was slow due to icing left from the overnight.

Yuck!
 

Over here in Claremont, we had snow, then rain, now it's switching to snow again. Many in area without power... but I still have it. Spoke with my folks @ South Down Shores + he said he's without power. Mom's been ill, he has her bundled. Anyone know if there is a shelter with heat for elderly to go to in the Laconia area?

Temporary Emergency Shelter For Families..
 

SLI, Open Arms Outreach
756 Union Ave
Laconia, NH
(603) 524-4580

Good luck.

Power restored on M'boro Neck at 11:45
 

NH Coop got things back up quickly. Less than six hours outage for us. Hopefully everyone else gets back up soon.
12:30 update: Temps 35 and lots of blue sky. The ice on the trees is melting.

Might be days
 

We called our neighbor at SDC and they indicated that it might be days prior to restoration of power.

FYI

Jetskier:cool:

Shelter?
 

Dad called Laconia PD to inquire about a shelter...they knew nothing. If temps drop tonight, it's going to get pretty cold there. Can't believe they have nothing in the area for warmth for the elderly!

Power on Mink Island - yes!
 

It was out this morning but has subsequently come back on -- hooray. Like many of you, I test for power by calling my house and waiting for the answering machine to pick up.

We'll see if it stays on once the expected high winds behind the ice storm kick in later today....

These are the worst kinds of storms since they can really devastate power lines and block road accesss over a very wide area.

I really hope those of you without power can find safe and warm refuge over the next few days.

kudos to NHEC
 

We're back in operation, too. Here's hoping that nothing more goes awry when things freeze up again tonight...

Laconia area shelter
 

Here are the particulars for the Laconia shelter:

Laconia
Woodside Building on grounds of Taylor Home
435 Union Avenue
Call 524-6881 to get transportation to the shelter

Shelter!!
 

Thanks so much, Skip! I have notified my parents and if powers not back on later this afternoon they will head for the shelter. I knew someone would come through for us on this forum!

Power went out at the Weirs around 6:15 and just came back 15 minutes ago.

Power company did a great job. Lots of tree limbs hanging on the wires. Wind is picking up from the NW.

R2B

Thaks all
 

I am stuck out in Ohio with a very bad wifi connection.I searched all the news media to find out how bad it was at home.I found more info about Moultonborough right here then in all the online papers and tv stations.THANKS.
My wife went to work in Farmington and won't be home till late afternoon.I was hoping she wouldn't have to worry about frozen pipes tonight. I will keep checking here thanks again,any news about the center of town would be greatly appreciated.

Not good here in the Manchester area either.My house along with most of Bedford is w/o power.Give me snow over ice anyday!

Southern NH Hit Hard
 

I live in Chester and my business is in Manchester and the ride in this morning was like going through a war zone! What should have been a fifteen minute ride took over an hour because of all the downed tress and closed roads. Trees and power lines down everywhere, many roads completely closed and a lot homes and cars damaged from tress falling on them.

Luckily I have a generator and well prepared, but there are many who are not. After seeing the devastation this morning in the area, I can't imagine power will even be up much before the beginning of next week. Truly one of the worst ice storms I have ever seen in southern NH!

Stay safe!

Dan

Any one know when the electric will be back on in Meredith

SDS is back on
 

I was just able to contact my answering machine in South Down Shores, so at least some of SDS is back on. Hopefully all.

Power back on in Effingham area at 3:50. Still no phone but never lost cable and cable modem (T-W). Looks like further south there will be a lot of cold people tonight and tomorrow.

Wolfeboro and Tuftonboro apparently went out just after 5 (unless the generator made my coffee). We had no land line phones either. We had power back on between 8 and 9 depending on exactly where you were. I guess some will be out longer. We went to Rochester and Market Basket and Walmart still did not have power around 3 or 4. On the back roads there were a lot of trees down heavy with ice. People were using chain saws, a lot of trees and power lines down. Met someone I know and they said it was really bad where they live in Alton (2 trees on their porch and no power) and might not have power for days and someone in Rochester said the same. Hannafords in Alton was on generator at around 4 and were closing at 5. No meat, very few fresh veggies and very dark in that dept., no butter, no frozen veggies. etc. Signs said "don't open doors" to milk. Maine has a lot of people out of power too. I think it is going to be a hard few days for a lot of people. I am grateful we are not them, poor people.

All of Alton Out
 

NHEC reports that virtually all of Alton has no power. It went out shortly after midnight last night. I've heard that Wolfeboro and parts of Gilford do.

Its a Crystal Palace
 

Here is a picture looking out from the top of the Ossipee Mountains this morning.

Just got power back in Hudson,NH
 

My power down here went out about 4am on Friday, just got it back today (Sat.) at 11am.

It's so strange because by midday on Friday most of the ice had melted and everything looked so "normal" and yet power was out all over. I drove around a bit and there were tree branches down here and there but nothing too big and no obvious wires down. My wife drove up to Bedford, NH to get her Mom from assisted living where they were without power and several roads were closed. I assume trees and wires were down there. We have a generator and had heat, hot water, frig working, and some lights so we have been OK. Some tree branches were down well away from the house.

Now I need to get up to Moultonboro to see how we fared up there. The trees are right next to the house and I hope there was no damage.

Jeffk, power was back on down on Long Island by early afternoon Friday. On arrival last night, lights were on along the way, Saw no ice on the trees at all, but around a quarter inch of ice on the ground, with liquid runoff still in the process of freezing up (was about 28 F on arrival). No tree damage at all that I can see, other than some dead stuff nature pruned off.

Lake is still open, too, for anyone interested.

The power was down her in the northern end of Meredith from roughly 4AM to 4PM. I saw the NH Coop truck heading up the hill at 3:50PM and gave the boys the big thumbs uo. Ten minutes later we were back on the grid.

NH Coop is good...maybe too good. With the Winter we had last year we only lost power maybe five times, never for more than a half hour. I was a bit complacent and was caught off guard. Fortunately we have a wood stove, a propane cook stove, and plenty of backup water (we have a well) so all was well for the 12 hours (except for our poor baby girl who was running a 101+ fever due to an ear infection through all of this). Lessons were certainly learned (for example, have cell phones charged before the storm). Again, thanks NH Coop and I hope our Southern NH friends are hanging in there.

Power Back in Alton!
 

Our power in West Alton went out around midnight on Thursday, 12/11. It came back on around 2:00 PM this afternoon (Sat.), then went out again for about an hour, then came back around 3:00 PM and this time it appears to be holding. I'm told the entire town of Alton was out for this duration, something about the main power feed lines to Alton from the Portsmouth area being badly damaged. I have not confirmed this information, but it was provided to me by a member of the Alton Fire Dept.

We listened to our portable scanner quite a bit during the power outage and the number of downed trees, wires and poles was simply amazing. It seems to me that the power company crews have done a remarkable job getting things repaired as quickly as they have. NH Electric Coop (which supplies power to Alton) brought in crews from Vermont and NY to assist.

A PSNH representative was quoted in today's Citizen saying that this ice storm created "the largest single power outage in the state's history". The article went on to say that (at press time) nearly 320,000 PSNH customers were without power". Apparently the Citizen did not contact NH Electric Coop, as there was nothing mentioned in the entire front-page article about the Alton area.

Power Still Down
 

Still out of power in Chester and does not look good to have it on any time soon. Still seeing lots of power lines down in the area. Much progress was made to make roads passable however. Almost all roads are now passable. This area got hit hard!

Dan

Southern NH Hit Bad
 

Lost ours Thursday night and got it back Sat @ 8:30AM. Friends in Londonderry, Salem, Hudson & Windham are all still out. Poles snapped, roads closed and wires ripped off the houses. Usually we are some of the last to get it back but we got lucky this time. PSNH has updated some of them saying mid week, driving through Londonderry to Manchester last night it was dark dark dark........

Ice Storm Refugee
 

I am an ice storm refugee still without a home in east Central MA. Perhaps I should head out to the island where there is power!!!

I am staying with my daughter near Boston ... and it looks like I will be here until at least Tuesday. I live on the couch with my cat who is subtlely terrorizing their cat. I can't believe what a bully she is. I am laid up with trouble with my leg so cannot do too much.. I am grateful to be warm and have internet access.

It is odd that the local news is not saying anything about the MA residents still stranded... they keep talking about NH and ME..

Hope everyone is well
IG

IG,

This story keeps updating, as of 39 minutes ago.

Link; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28193030/

Please take care, we need you out here!
Best wishes,
Terry

Watch cnn
 

Hi IG. I am a refugee also. I am in Ohio, my truck broke down.My wife is having all the fun in N H. If you watch CNN they have been running lots of footage of the Worcester area. My son in New Market N H is still without power also. Good luck

We are still w/out power in sourthern NH. I live in a town right outside of Nashua, one of the areas in the state that was hit the hardest. I am thanking God for this lake house as we've basically moved up here until we get power back. We are in Moultonborough and according to our neighbor the power up here only went out for several hours. Godspeed to ALL the crews working on the lines and let's be thankful for the warm up that's suppposed to happen tomorrow for a few days.

Kona, aren't you worried about your home freezing up, etc? I would be so worried about that. After, the last real bad ice storm we got a generator, then realized that we needed to get one that came on by itself and believe me it is nice. Such peace of mind, especially if you are away. We have always kept a wood stove but haven't used it for several years. I don't even know why we have it now, with the generator, except think we might like to use it sometime. We were lucky to only lose power for a few hours, but I am still glad we had the generator.

Ice Storm Refugee
 

My wife and I are homeless too. Power has been out since Thursday night. We have been staying at different places for the last two nights. I am staying at a hotel near work tonight, in Burlington MA. The whole place is full of NH refugees. PSNH says we may be out until Wednesday. We have water running in all the faucets and hoping the house stays above freezing. We are going to be in the market for a generator after this storm.

No power here in my neck of central MA either. Hoping for today or tomorrow. Thank goodness for the showers at work!

I don't think I'll ever forget Thursday night, listening to trees crashing down all around us. It was frightening to say the least. You would hear a loud crack, then the sound of hundreds or thousands of pounds of oak (plus ice) plunging down all around. You never knew whether the next one was going to hit the house, and this happened every few minutes for more than 24 hours!

Same here at Merrymeeting River MHP, after surviving the scariest day of my life when the tornado ripped through our park I figured that was it for a while but when we lost power just after midnight and had to stay up(because of C-Pap) and listening to the pine trees snapping all around us again was very frightening. We could not leave the park because of trees down and blocking the entrance. Good Riddance to 2008!
Next door Neighbors place - http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...24_600x452.jpg
[/QUOTE]

No Power
 

I'm in Milford NH and as of this morning still without power. The tree limb on the power line, up the street is still just hanging around. On a street of 50 homes, four of them have thier power lines ripped off. However, after seeing pictures of the Derry area, I count myself fortunate. You know what burns my tuckus? The first two house down the street are on a different power grid and thier Xmas lights are on.

Oh well, I'll have more firewood for next year.

Real bad here in Bedford NH also.Talked to PSNH and was told some homes in my area will be lucky to get power back by Friday.I got mine back Sunday morning after the house was down to 36.I do have a gen but spent the last 3 days at my parents house with it.They had 10 inches of water in the cellar and of course that ended up ruining the furnace motor which was submerged. Finally have them in pretty good shape this morning after a frustrating couple hours this morning getting the generator running again after in ran out of fuel early this morning.NOTE:check your oil often in your generator.Most have a oil sensor switch that will disable the electrical when the oil is low so that you don't ruin the motor.I found out the hard way way again this morning.Many utility poles down around here that have not even been looked at yet.I suspect some people will be w/o power for a least a few weeks.

waiting patiently in Salem NH...
 

Still no power in many parts of Salem,NH. Very thankful for yesterday's and today's warm up.
Started out as "oh well, no big deal". But it's getting old very quickly.

Yesterday I drove from Black Cat down to Rochester and found the first evidence of an ice storm (ice still on trees) at Weirs Beach. It got progressively worse as I continued southward. It looked "average" in Weirs Beach, and in the Rochester area it was devastating, with lots of lines still down.

There are many, many trees and branches down in that area. Some are still hanging on wires. Yesterday there were even some traffic lights at intersections still without power... those usually take first priority, which should tell you something.

Today it is getting windy ahead of a cold front. Winds are increasing at Black Cat now, and are already touching 30 mph. These winds are from the south and are bringing up warm air. Temps are approaching 50 here now, and are near 60 in the southern part of the state.

The ice will fall off the trees rapidly today. This sudden change in weight and balance could destabilize some hanging tree branches. Injuries and power outages are possible today as a result... be ready just in case.

Winds will continue to gust out of the south or southwest, reaching 30-35 mph in some places this afternoon, and will shift to the northwest as the front passes. The wind shift could also help destabilize many hanging tree branches.

Watch out when driving or walking under trees, and be prepared for a possible power outage.

Still trying to figure out the workings of this storm. It appears the Meredith area got more rain than freezing rain while further south they got more freezing rain than rain. I would have thought that the Meredith area would have been spared by a larger area of ground level cold air resulting in more sleet than freezing rain but that doesn't appear to be the case. :confused:

It WAS a strange storm. The one in 98 (I think it was) hit us real hard but not so bad south of here.

We were lucky here in Effingham to only lose power for 13 hours. I think the sleet we got first helped us out a lot. Best investment I ever made was the generator with auto transfer switch. Just wish I had bought a larger one - this only runs 6 circuits.
Hope everyone south of here makes out ok.

Have relatives who came to Gilford Friday, but they just got their power back in Brookline, NH on a road off rt 130 just west of Hollis, west of Nashua. They were fearful it'd be days more as trees and poles are down across Rt 130.

They bought a generator, as were fearful of freezing pipes. I'd be interested in the auto transfer switching; guess we contact an electrician. Certainly would be nice to be able to access the power to a well. Fortunately the heating is electronic ignition with propane system and warm air ducts.

Powers Generator
 

I used Powers Generator to install my 25KW whole house Kohler Generator. These guys know their stuff and also have a service team on call 24/7 in case anything goes wrong. My house was lit up like a Christmas Tree and I was soaking in my hot tub during the power outage in West Alton.

www.powersgenerator.com

Cost?
 

Info on the cost would be appreciated -- I'm certainly not going to go through anything like this again! I probably don't need something as powerful as you have, my hot tub is no longer working but........... that's a different story. Thanks!

Not Over Just Yet..
 

I talked to my Brother last night and he has generator backup power in southern NH. and they got they're power back at 10:00 pm on Tuesday. He had been talking to the linemen working near his home and they told him that some would not have their power restored until after Christmas!

Let us pray for all of those who are still without in this Holiday Season.

Best wishes to everyone,
Terry

25KW is a fairly large setup, and unless you lose power frequently much more than what you would likely need.

An 8KW unit with auto-start should be around $6000 installed, depending on the exact model, etc. That would just be budgetary, could be more or less. You could run several things at once, but not everything in your house like "normal". Furnaces, lights, microwave, fridge could all run though.

Look for a diesel or LP unit. I prefer (and used) an LP generator myself. Very quiet and very low maintenance, and the fuel stays viable for years. Downside to LP is that it can be a little harder to find in some cases, can't just fill up a jug with 3 gallons of fuel like with diesel. Stay away from gasoline generators if you're going for a "real" unit.

I paid $500 for my 5000 watt gen.It will power my furnace,water pump,tv's and lights.I hooked mine up directly to my panel.Very simple.

The 25KW cost me about $10,000. It runs on propane. I have 2 - 1000 gallon propane tanks buried in the ground. My house is 7000 sq. ft and on the side of a hill with a long driveway. My fear was that if the power lines were damaged, it would take the power company weeks to fix them. Therefore, I told the generator company I wanted a system that could run the entire house just as a way to prepare for the worst. Last weekend the generator ran for 36+ hours straight and it didn't even put a dent in the propane levels. Best investment I ever made.

A 10KW Guardian by Generac with an Auto Transfer switch and 10 circuits would be about $2700 shipped. If you can locate it outside not too far from your main panel you could probably get it installed electrically for around $1200. You will need either a propane or natural gas supply and not little 20# tanks but something substantial. The propane company will probably charge for their connection (mine did not). Best thing is after you install it you're practically guaranteed no power outages for a couple years.:D

Ours is propane automatic also and was about $15,000. Before that we had a diesel one that was not automatic so somebody had to turn it on. Also this one will run a lot longer without running out of fuel. This one starts itself up automatically once a week. A couple of times we forgot the other one and the battery was dead. This is nice because if you're not home, you don't have to worry. There is such a range from the portable ones to the whole house ones, you can pay just about any price depending on what you choose.

Thanks to All of You!
 

Home Depot had 5000 watt gas gens for $599 yesterday.