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This very rare October snow storm broke all records. It dropped close to
9 inches of wet heavy snow onto trees that still had most of their
leaves. This caused tremendous damage. In Nashua over 75% of residents
were without power. The same in Mancchester, Brookline, Hollis; pretty
much everywhere in southern New Hampshire. Until about 11:30 PM on Saturday, Oct 29th, all our cars were in the driveway. Bradford and Heather had come over and decided it was safer to spend the night here. I looked out the living room window about 11:30 PM and saw that huge branches had broken off. One was laying on top of Heather's car. That prompted action. I shoveled off the backyard area next to the end of the driveway. Then I pulled the van forward followed by the Toyota. I started walking toward the shed to get the bow saw. As I approached the shed a large crack rang out. I turned tail and ran back towards the house just as a very large branch broke off an oak tree and slammed into the ground just in front of the shed. There was already a smaller branch in about the same place. After waiting a couple minutes I finally had enough confidence to go into the shed and get the bow saw. I used the bow saw to cut away branches that were extending into the driveway that were blocking Heather's car. All the time there were creaking sounds above us. We got Heather's car onto the grass and Bradford pulled his car into Thelma's driveway across the street. Bradford and I then walked down Cherokee to see what was going on. The power lines going into the Lanctos' house had been knocked down by a large broken branch. The lines were hanging very low with only one place where we could walk through. We continued on towards the Deiberts' home. As we walked a bunch of loud creaking sounds started up. We ran to clear the trees, but nothing came down. Then we quickly returned home. About 1:00 AM Sunday morning we turned off the generator, put it in the back of the van, and all went to bed. It's amazing how dark it gets when there is no power. The next morning revealed the damage as shown in the pictures below. With Bradford's help we got the generator out of the van and set it up beside the house and ran it for about 5 hours. Church was cancelled for all three wards and Heather's meetings in the Heritage Park Ward were also cancelled. There was no battery voltag on the landline telephone. The signal level on all of our cell phones was roaming one bar or nothing at all. As I write this at 7:00 PM on Sunday there still isn't a normal cell phone signal. The landline came back at some point during the day and we were able to make calls out that way. This is the most damage I have ever seen from a storm, greater than the few hurricans we have had over the years and even the ice storms. The last picture is at the intersection of Sagamore and Shawnee where a utility pole has broken off at the base and is leaning into the street. Cherokee is also blocked off at the Lanctos' house, but we can get out going the other way. |