Ice Storm New Hampshire 2008

Governer Lynch has declared a State of Emergency in NH. I woke up this morning with no power and the temperature was steadily dropping. At about 1am this morning I flew out of bed when I heard a loud crack and then a deep THUD and the whole house shook. I turned the outside lights on and I saw the tree in the back yard, a HUGE tree, had come crashing down. The freezing rain we received last night encased all of the trees in a thick layer of ice. The heavy trees came down last night all over NH taking out the power lines on the way down. It may be up to a week before we get power back, and more importantly HEAT. You can see all of the pictures here:

http://www.wmur.com/index.html

I have a small child so when I woke up without heat I was worried. When noon came and still no power I went out to my car to charge my cell and called the Portsmouth Police Department. I was informed that it may be up to a week before power came back on, but there were shelters nearby. Also, I knew some towns did have power.

Before I succumbed to going to a shelter, I knew I still had time to find a hotel room in the areas which managed to have power. Luckily, I got the last two rooms at the Ashworth in Hampton for my family and my sister's family. So here we are, hunkered down at the Ashworth, with room service of course.

Because no one had power, I believe many people do not realize how long we are going to be without power and they STILL may be waiting for that heat to come back on. As as the temperatures fall, those homes will not stay warm.

If you have heat, electricity,

a generator, fireplace, etc, please

check on neighbors especially

those with small children and the elderly!

If you can read this, you probably have power so this might not do much good, but here are the list of shelters available in the area:

Concord - Green Street Community Center - 39 Green Street (Behind City Hall)

Deerfield - Deerfield Community School

Derry - Londonderry High School - 268C Mammoth Road - Residents who need transportation or have questions can call 845-5522.

Dover/Somersworth/Rochester - Rochester Middle School

Durham - Oyster River High School - 55 Coe Drive

Exeter - Exeter High School - 1 Blue Hawk Drive

Farmington - Farmington High School

Goffstown - Mountain View Middle School - 41 Lauren Lane, Goffstown - Call 624 4307 for assistance

Henniker - Henniker Community School

Hillsborough - Hillsborough Methodist Church - Henniker Street

Hudson - Hudson Community Center - 12 Lyons Avenue

Kingston - Sanborn Regional High School - 17 Danville Road

Laconia - Woodside Building on grounds of Taylor Home - 435 Union Avenue - Call 524-6881 to get transportation to the shelter

Londonderry - Londonderry High School - 268C Mammoth Road

Manchester - Southern New Hampshire University Athletic Complex, - 2500 North River Road

Milford - Milford Elementary School - 80 Heron Pond Road, Milford

Nashua - Nashua High School South - 36 Riverside Street

Pittsfield - Pittsfield Elementary School - 34 Bow Street

Portsmouth - Portsmouth High School - Andrew Jarvis Drive

Raymond - Iber Holmes Gove Middle School - 1 Stephen Batchelder Pkwy

Rochester - Rochester Middle School - 47 Brook Street

Strafford - Strafford Police Department - 34 Rollercoaster Road

Washington - Camp Morgan Lodge