Nearly five days after this terrible ice storm there are still almost 210,000 homes in New England and New York without power, down from the initial estimate of 1.4 million. While here in Boston we were not directly affected we did have many family members in the thick of things and assume many of our readers have been as well. With all the difficulty and destruction of this disaster we did hear a great story of generosity from our family in New Hampshire...
While looking for photos for this post we came across the image above the jump from AP and were shocked — it is a picture of my (Wes) parents' property and horse, Differ, walking in the field of my childhood home. My parents live in a very small town in New Hampshire, hit hard by the storm. One of their neighbors had installed a generator and, being the only home in town with power, this neighbor has invited many people — my parents included — to come share their precious resource to take warm showers, charge batteries and laptops. Being a historic town, the houses are hundreds of years old and they credit their "old school" systems such as gravity fed wells with helping them get through the loss of electricity.
As hard as these types of events can be, we have found they always lead to people selflessly helping each other, being true neighbors, and building stronger communities. We can't think of a better message for the holidays. Please share your stories of how the storm has effected you...
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
it hasn't really.
Except that everyone in my family (ie. Grandparents in Hudson, MA; mom in Clinton, MA and sister in Raymond, NH etc.) are being extra sassy on the phone these past couple of days...it's not my fault I'm the only one in the family that didn't lose their power (big ups to Wellesley for SOLID powerlinez)!
I also got two emails from two different strangers, both mass emails talking about the storm and including pretty ice pictures. Very strange.
view hissingsissing's profile
My Dad lives in Hampton Falls, NH and he was out of power for several days. Haven't spoken to him since Mon, so I'm not sure if he's back. He and his wife relied on their fireplace for warmth - apparently they didn't freeze because a: their house is well-insulated, and b: they had a few warm-ish days since Thursday night when the ice storm hit. They moved the contents of their fridge to the deck to keep cold, and reheated some leftovers over the fire for dinner (they used the rack from their BBQ grill to act as a burner, and added another tier using a second rack so they could steam food over boiling water...Laura Ingalls Wilder would be proud). With no light past 4pm, he said they played a lot of games and went to bed early.
They did find an open grocery store a few towns over to buy some water and ice - and upon entering the store, saw a line of 30-40 people. Discouraged about a potentially long wait, my step-mother asked what they were in line for, and they replied: 'coffee'. Funny how 40 people line up for coffee, but there were 0 lines for food/supplies. Make everyone was already stocked up? Or maybe they can't begin to think about supplies until they're properly caffeinated.
view heathshah's profile
While I was spared the brunt of the storm, I can relate to the generosity of New Englander's when the going gets tough, having been through a house fire and experiencing an entire community coming together during our ordeal. We are a stalwart people: cantankerous at times, yet open-armed when our family or neighbours are in trouble.
view ehy2k's profile