Alisa Johnson

It’s been twelve days, and some people still do not have power. I know how difficult that is, however, I am getting a little tired of hearing the politicians DEMANDING a reason to the company’s length of time to get everyone back on the grid, and bad-mouthing the power companies. It seems evident that we experienced a crisis. One the company was not at all prepared for, and has had to call in utility companies from around the country and Canada, to help remedy this situation. This crisis, is the largest one we have experienced in the state on NH. It is obvious to me, that the utility company has enough trucks and staff for a little more than the everyday work required for them. This is just good business – reducing capital equipment and salary costs. Why on earth would a politician think that they could possibly handle getting electric back to 400,000 customers in record time. I for one, saw the utilities companies out in this past snow storm still working in dire conditions. Some of these guys are from Tennessee and have only seen this type of condition once or twice in their life. Can you imagine them having to work in this? Talk about being a fish out of water! Don’t get me wrong, I do feel bad for those still without power; but I just feel these politicians are using this crisis to try to earn brownie points- or should I say voter ‘s points! Instead, I wish they would use their power to help unite us and let us know, that as difficult as it is, everyone is doing their best. Provide us with directions to assist those in need, and perhaps start volunteer squads to check on people, or bring people to shelters. Oh, and of course, THEY could use THEIR money to bring in MORE utility companies to assist us, at getting everyone back online quicker, instead of JUST whining and complaining out loud! I just think a little leadership of confidence and direction, would be much more helpful to everyone, than the anger and divisive tactics directed towards the power company, they are currently using.

1.) Being Warm! 2.) Hot cup of Tea. 3.) Drying My Hair 4.) Lights after dark 5.) Getting on the internet whenever I wanted 6.) Seeing the news, so I can get updates on when the electric would come on! 7.) Cooking Dinner 8.) Holiday Baking 9.) Doing Laundry in MY house! 10.) Sleeping with less than 10 lbs of blankets on me! Now it is Back - and I can finally enjoy all of these things again! It is hard to believe that it took so long to get electricity back in Nashua! But I am so thankful, we got it before this snowstorm. Thank you to all the PSNH & other utililty workers from Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Canada! thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Well, we are now on the 5th day w/out power in our neighborhood. I am digging out my recipes for crock pots, as we do have minimal power w/ our generator hookup. It is amazing how dependent we are on power! My daughter is extremely sick today, and I keep going to check on her, now in the pitch black, as it is after 5 pm. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve flicked the switch on, in the hallway, to sese how she is doing! As they say, when it rains it pours, she is very sick, AND our mainline backed up in the basement today. Fortunately, we have a person that specializes in drain clogs, as I think it would be quite a while trying to get a regular plumber here to snake it out, due to the burst pipes in the area. We only had to wait a few hours for service, and our basement had minimal flooding – Thank Goodness! I don’t think I could have handled it very well today, if we got major flooding. I am approaching my breaking point! I went to the dentists today, and found out my hygienist got power back in Chester, NH, yesterday. I got a text message from my friend in Pelham, NH as they got their power back today also. We have seen the street in front of us, and behind us with power for two days. We saw the Park and Recs Dept of Nashua clear the streets in our neighborhood yesterday, figuring the electric company is just a few hours behind. Still, tonight we anxiously await! Of course, now we are expecting a storm of snow, sleet and rain tonight. That is sure to only complicate the matters of restoring power in the granite state. I am very thankful, my dad had a generator to loan us. We would be VERY cold, and unhappy if we did not have at least that! I will say this much – we will be getting our dryer re-wired , and purchasing our own generator when they make it back to the stores in the state! I want to be able to Back-Feed our house, so that I can use the stove top or hair dryer, or computer, when I want to, and not have to get in line for a plug!!

It's been since Thursday night (about 9:30 pm) since we've had power in South Nashua. The First night wasn't too bad, since the house was still warm. But by morning things had changed significantly. I got up around 8:00 am to check on things. When I got to the back side of the house, it was F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G!! At first thought, I figured it was just because that was the addition that built on a crawl space and abutted the garage. But as I stood in the hallway assessing the situation, I realized I was feeling a fast moving draft. I opened the door to my son's room to find him missing , and a large tree limb through the window. There was glass shattered and scattered everywhere! I was glad to find my son fine and sleeping in the basement, and no squirrels in my home. I guess the limb had broken through the window at 6:00 am, and shattered on his back. He just got up and brushed it all off, and moved to the sofa in the basement. We spent that afternoon clearing tree out of the room, the glass out of the sash, and securing it with a storm window, and some plastic. We then closed the door to his room, and the mudroom to keep the rest of the house as warm as possible.

When we went out to get something to eat at 1:30, we found the main road to all the restaurants and mall, packed. Apparently, most of Nashua was without power and looking for someplace to stay warm or eat. The fact that it was about 20 degrees outside didn't help matters!

We kept a blazing fire to keep us at least above the freezing point for the day. When I picked up my husband from his trip to California, that night, I updated him with the news. I'm not sure which is worse, my needing to deal with everything on my own, or his having to come home to the great news - Welcome home, honey! LOL . We decided to go out to dinner at 9:00 pm just so I could get warm, and we could have something to eat.

Fortunately, on Sat, my father called to tell me, he had a generator we could use. We went to pick that up, and got the furnace working by mid afternoon. When our thermostats came on, they all registered somewhere in the 43 degrees mark. It took us a good 12 hours before we were above 60. On Sunday, we were able to bring some more electricity into the house. Now we have limited power for a computer or two, internet access, a crock pot for cooking, two lights , our fridge, and one TV for getting updates on the news. We were hoping to hear we should be getting power anytime soon. But it turns out, there are 300,000 clients of the 500,000 PSNH clients without power. Some complete towns without power, so we are probably a bit lower on the list. There are three other electric companies in NH w/ similar reports.

Losing power is like losing your right hand. Most every solution we come up with, requires an alternative for using power. For instance, we have a camping stove we decided we could use inside to cook on. However, they warn about carbon monoxide poisoning. "No problem, hon," I said, "We can turn on the fan over the range to uptake the carbon monoxide."
" Good idea," my husband responded. That lasted about five minutes, until one of us remembered you need power to turn on the fan!

We've had hot water all along, but the thoughts of washing my hair, and sitting in a cool house with wet hair, hasn't exactly thrilled me. I finally washed it today though, and unplugged the fridge to dry my hair. It's all in your priorities, and level of tolerance - I guess!