Storm Reflections

It's Christmas Eve here in New Hampshire and its been a trying few weeks as I reflect back on current weather events. My family and I lost power for 46 hours during one of the worse Ice Storms on record here in the northeast. We lost power in the middle of the night but as day arrived it became evident that power would not be returning quickly.

A quick trip down the block to my 80 something mom's house found her without power and very cold. Luckily I was able to bring her home with me. My household was in many ways lucky, although we lost power we did keep city water pressure so we had drinking water and bathrooms available. For once I was happy with my gas hot water heater and stove they allowed us to have hot water and the ability to cook through out the storm.

My decorative fireplace was pressed into service to keep us all warm and it did a great job. The most frustrating thing was trying to find wood in times of crisis. I was able to find some at 5.00 a bundle and purchased all I could. The fact that we could only heat about a 10 foot radius around the fireplace necessitated a lot of family time !! We placed a hurricane lamp in the middle of the kitchen table and played board games all evening, it was actually rather fun, looking back on the evenings.

Looking back on the storm now I've learned a few lessons. We can survive in our house for a bout three days before I think we'd need to head to a shelter or hotel. We have a Cat and Dog who are just like family members and since most shelter won't accept them, we'd have tried for a hotel out of the immediate area. Cash is KING, I didn't have much in my wallet and my debit card was useless. From now on my emergency kit will include some cash. We did not have flashlight batteries...of course I had all kinds of batteries, just not the right size so now I've got the flashlight and batteries matched up. I need a stock of wood and kindling for three days. Finally I needed a good storm radio. We had to scramble for a way to keep our radio running and our cell phones charged

I'll post my experience with storm radio and my cell phone and house phone in my next post.

Bonnie