I am massively relieved that power is back on...
This morning I went by the house to check on things and feed the cats and found that the power was back on at the house; and that by some miracle I do not fully understand most of our treasured marine aquarium livestock appears to have survived! We also still have some propane though the fireplaces have been running non-stop since Wednesday night. Cats and water pipes are fine, hot-tub is fine, freezers remained frozen...
I am in shock and disbelief that we survived that long without power so well. I hope everyone else does too.
I have to say huge thanks to the power restoration crews and road clearing crews. In the face of natural calamity (salt washing rain followed by sleet and then several inches of heavy wet sticky snow all in only a few hours), and with that compounded by massive plow-blocking traffic jams of epic proportions; they have done a remarkable job of getting the roads passable quickly, then clearing roads so power repair crews could get to down lines, then working on subdivisions (which continues).
Something should be done about not super-saturating the roads all at once with so much traffic, but frankly that could not have been foreseen, at least not on the scale we encountered. The heavy snow taking down overhead lines is something that can only be fixed by re-running those lines underground, which is expensive; but we really need to do it because warmer winters with more wet/sticky snow and ice will be more frequent going forward.
The Prius was a champ, I was able to slowly drive past trucks, cars, and even large snow plows that had no traction at all in the worst of the storm. I did bottom out on Mountain Road where the snow was deep enough that I could not clear the piles, but was able to back up for a mile using the backup camera (following my own tire tracks back out) to try an alternate route. I got stuck 150' from the driveway and used the snow blower to clear a path to the driveway, getting my car off the street just in time for the plow to come through!
I am in shock and disbelief that we survived that long without power so well. I hope everyone else does too.
I have to say huge thanks to the power restoration crews and road clearing crews. In the face of natural calamity (salt washing rain followed by sleet and then several inches of heavy wet sticky snow all in only a few hours), and with that compounded by massive plow-blocking traffic jams of epic proportions; they have done a remarkable job of getting the roads passable quickly, then clearing roads so power repair crews could get to down lines, then working on subdivisions (which continues).
Something should be done about not super-saturating the roads all at once with so much traffic, but frankly that could not have been foreseen, at least not on the scale we encountered. The heavy snow taking down overhead lines is something that can only be fixed by re-running those lines underground, which is expensive; but we really need to do it because warmer winters with more wet/sticky snow and ice will be more frequent going forward.
The Prius was a champ, I was able to slowly drive past trucks, cars, and even large snow plows that had no traction at all in the worst of the storm. I did bottom out on Mountain Road where the snow was deep enough that I could not clear the piles, but was able to back up for a mile using the backup camera (following my own tire tracks back out) to try an alternate route. I got stuck 150' from the driveway and used the snow blower to clear a path to the driveway, getting my car off the street just in time for the plow to come through!