The good news is, we survived the ice storms unscathed. Where typically we’re one of the first to lose power and the last to get it back, this time around we lucked out. North Weare was without power (and may still be) because of trees taking down power lines, and the towns of Goffstown, New Boston, and Bedford were all in the dark, yet somehow our little half of paradise is still lit. Considering how many fallen trees and branches I saw, as well as the trees that were hanging down over roads and electrical lines because of the weight of the ice, the worst we saw was some flickering lights.
The bad news is, I am out of work until Bedford restores power. Since I couldn’t reach the owner of the restaurant yesterday morning (his cell phone died since they had no power to charge it) I went to work, only to find that all of Route 101 was down. I finally reached him at his house, and found out that Bedford was out since 11pm Thursday night, which means even if the restaurant did have power restored Friday afternoon, all the food in the refrigerators and freezers was suspect and would probably have to be ditched, meaning nothing to cook. (Too bad – the food service places are making a killing right now on people without power to make coffee.) As of Saturday afternoon, there is still no power to anywhere in that area.
It was an eerie feeling driving home from work yesterday. Traffic lights were out, which made intersections a bit hairy, but it could have been worse I suppose. Gas stations had yellow tape across their pumps. Grocery stores were dark. Houses were dark. It was just plain strange to see darkened signs and buildings when you get so used to seeing them all lit up. The closer I got to home, the more roads I saw blocked off due to fallen trees and power lines. As the news has stated, it may be a few days before power is restored to all affected areas. At least it’s a bit warmer out.