Storm Albert 10/29/11

Last month it was Hurricane Irene with the power outages and we all thought that was weird for us to have one so late in the year but it was nothing compared to Snow Storm Albert. We were on our way to PA to our granddaughter's 3rd birthday when Albert hit. It wasn't suppose to start until later in the day so we figured we had enough time to get there and would only have snow to deal with on the way home. No big deal, right? Wrong!

We were just getting into PA when it started. Here is the rest stop we stopped at on the way.

I didn't think it would get so bad so fast but it did. Seems where we were in PA got about 3" but further up and toward home was measuring in feet and inches. We found that out the hard way. The branches of the trees were so heavy with snow they as well as whole trees were falling everywhere, many pulling the power lines with them. 

Tree heavy with snow

Trees and branches in the road

That is one ride I won't ever forget. Roads closed everywhere you turn (even 84 was closed) with downed power lines. I ran out of room on my disc or I would have some really amazing photos. As it was we didn't get home until 3 in the morning. Naturally we had lost our power for several days and had some damage to our own trees. I am just so sad that the tree in front, a wild dogwood was damaged. (I took these a day or two later.)

Took the following photos yesterday. The tree grew in a "V" and one side of it broke.

The apple tree also had some big branches broken as well as the top of the tree breaking off.

The back yard also had damage.

Our shed really isn't in a jungle, it just looks it now.

Here is another view. I just love the way the sun shine is in this photo.

As I said, we were lucky. We didn't have trees on our house or any damage like that. We did loose power and that really stunk. It was so cold. Luckily my daughter got her power back after a couple of days and she ran the generator over so at least we had that. It couldn't run the furnace but we put the electric blanket on the bed and stayed warm that way. 

The electric blanket wasn't on the bed yet since it only just started getting cold. It's one of those duel ones where each side has its own control which is great because I like it warmer than my DH does so it was perfect ....so I thought. We get in bed and I turn mine up to about a 7 which should be nice and toasty. I was cold and to make matters worse my DH kept throwing the blanket off of his arms and upper chest which made it go off my shoulder and arm. Once my arm hit the cold room air temp. I was freezing. I finally told him to turn his control down instead of freezing me. He said he did but was still warm so he turned it down another notch or so. I had turned my side on high and I was still freezing with him uncovering me. Well, needless to say I didn't sleep well.When morning came and he got out of bed to get ready for work I moved to his side of the bed trying to find some warmth. OMG! As soon as my cold body hit his side I thought I was going to crack like a  glass you just took from the freezer and stuck under boiling water. Was it HOT! I said why didn't you turn your side down as it was too hot. He said he was turning it down all night long and it was still hot. He had it on low.....as low as it goes.......I started cracking up laughing. He looked at me like I just got off the spaceship from mars. It hit me what was going on. I put the blanket on the bed upside down so my controller was controlling his side. I was cold and kept putting mine up all night finally to high and he was so hot he kept turning his down until it was finally on low. So I boiled him and he froze me.

It wasn't too many days later we got the power back. Once again, the emergency reverse calls were a blessing. About the only thing I can say is they failed in one aspect. The water. At no time during this did they say a word about the water in Naugatuck. I heard it on the news saying that many places had a "Boil Water" advisory but for a complete list log onto their site. Now come on....be serious. We are in the middle of a power failure. What makes you think we can log on to any site? Not everyone has a generator and it did no good any ways as there was no Internet. That didn't come back until days after the power. So what exactly was I suppose to log on with? We all don't have cell phones and even so, many are not smart phones. I know I don't and neither does my DH. I know some of the elderly don't even have a cell phone. So needless to say we didn't know we were suppose to boil the water. I thank goodness we didn't get sick. I would have thought this would be something important enough for them to tell us as part of their emergency call.

As far as CL&P....they just finished the hearings after Irene and I guess they learned nothing from it. This was even worse. In fact here I sit 11 days after the event and there are still thousands without power. Once again CL&P President blew it. First he tried to say they didn't know the storm was going to have so much snow. Channel 3 (hats off to you) showed the weather forecasts from days before hand right up to the day of saying it would be huge with down power lines. Then CL&P President tried to "redeem himself" by saying he misspoke. Then he was asked if we had such few out-of-state line help because they didn't pay the bill from Irene. The President of CL&P saying that invoices were paid. Channel 3 once again did a phone interview with an electric co. in Ohio I think, not sure what state to be honest with you but they said they sent 17 crews to CT during Irene and never got paid so they only sent 6 this time (and there were 3 others that didn't get paid with one being right here in CT). Once again we hear from CL&P President saying the check is going in the mail tomorrow. Hey.....CL&P.....you ever hear the saying of being caught with your pants down? Well buddy, I suggest next time you wear underwear because now we see what you really are....an a**! As far as I am concerned you have the deaths of these people who froze to death while waiting for you to make good on your word over your head. Just like the ones who died trying to keep warm.

I just need to shout out to all the crews from all the states who once again came to help us. There is so many I can't even begin to name them all. In fact, I need to change that to include another country. A huge thanks to our neighbor up north as Canada was here too helping us in New England with out power outage.

For those still out of power, I am thinking of you....