Modern Vespa

Over 300,000 households without power and forecasting continued cold weather and high winds which could take down more trees and power lines. They are saying it's the one of the worst ice storms we've ever seen and may declare a state of emergency. Could take 3 or more days to restore power ... looks like it will be a dark Christmas

We went to check on some of our elderly neighbours without power and this is what we saw ...

Yikes! Stay safe. On the drive down to Boston for Christmas we passed convoys of utility trucks heading north. A few times now we've seen them trying to get a jump on things by getting in position. I hope you're not without for too long. It's quite a chore to fix.

Wow. That is brutal. Mighty nice of you to check in on your elderly neighbors.
I hope they get the power back on soon and stay safe.

Down here in Northern Virginia, we can have a winter with successive ice storms. There is nothing worse, nor more damaging, in the winter. Of course, while you were having an ice storm, it was 72F on Saturday and mid-60's and raining today. Saturday was so warm, I took off the full windscreen and put the flyscreen back on and took the liner out of my jacket. Very, very strange. Went out on my deck a few minutes ago, still 63. It will get much colder starting tomorrow. The long range forecast for this winter is pogo stick temperatures, with wide swings and a general warming trend beginning in February -- we'll see.

I hope you have plenty of canned goods and booze. Ride it out and good luck.

My God, what a mess. Awful timing too. Hope everyone gets heat back soon. Will be a long time cleaning up that mess, but getting everyone warm and on with their lives is critical.

Reminds me of an ice storm we had in Wisconsin ca. 1976. No power for a week. I was away in college and unaffected, but my folks had to keep their dairy farm running without electricity. Fortunately they were still heating with wood and had toasty steam heat when everyone else was shivering. Cows were driven down to a ditch for water twice a day, milked using the vacuum off of a tractor. Not the best time, but I guess there's a lot of satisfaction in survival.

Beautiful.

Our property in Oshawa looks even worse with so many old, tall trees that have long branches. It was scary to listen to them crashing all night and all morning. The power went out at 4:00 AM and was restored 12 hours later, but we survived with heat from the fireplace.

The overhead power line from the pole to our house was ripped out of the soffit when it was hit by several branches, but still survives on the ground. I managed to remove the offending branches and reattach the insulator to a temporary soffit, but the power company will not reattach the overhead wire to the insulator until all emergencies have been answered. I also need an electrician to reattach the downpipe to the outdoor meter and the wall with some new hardware.

The great cleanup may have to wait until spring, but at least the sidewalk and driveway are more or less passable.

I hope nobody freezes.

Cheers,
Bob

My house is fine as are my Vespas and car. However, my parents and several sets of friends are without power and heat now for more than 24hrs. The temperature is going to plunge today and Toronto Hydro has not been able to get the power on for many very quickly yet. One of my friends cars was badly damaged by a huge broken branch from a tree that fell onto it from his property.

I really hope everyone gets power soon.

Back in 2009, we had what is called "Snowmageddon" in the D.C. area, over 2 feet of snow and power lines down everywhere. Nothing worse than sitting in a powerless house on a December day as everything goes dark by 4:30 PM. We had a roaring fire in the fireplace, but elsewhere the temperature in the house dropped into the 50's and we kept the taps running slowly all night so the lines wouldn't freeze. After that experience, I took a friend's advice and went to Home Depot and ordered a whole house generator that is fueled from the natural gas main coming into the house. We've probably had it kick in about a half dozen times since, in snow falls, ice storms, and after the "derecho" that knocked down trees and power lines a few summers back. Cost $6000, but having piece of mind that you will have power and heat or A/C regardless is worth it.

Stay safe everyone and good for you looking in on your elderly neighbors. 8) GRIF y friends in Maine were without power for 2 weeks in their iceageddon a few years back. They too have a generator. Used it a few times. They can close off most rooms and have a wood stove insert in their fireplace but still it was cold. Don't miss that one bit. When i lived in VA they didn't like snow but nobody complained about ice.

No powers since Sunday but our gas fire place and gas stove works. We used last of the hot water this morning.
As for the turkey.. anyone has a good recipe for BBQ turkey?

Power went out for about 8 hours yesterday. Our neighbours next to us and down the street have been out for almost two days now. Our in-laws and two other families have been staying over and others have been dropping by to warm up (running out of wine and liquor). Looks like we will be cooking Christmas dinner for about 20 people - I just hope the power stays on, but I fear they will have to take the whole neighbourhood offline to fix all the downed power lines and trees. It looks post apocalyptic out there. My 30 minute commute into work this morning took over 2 hours and people were going into work just to escape the cold.

I can't imagine how people can last days let alone weeks without power and heat (we city folks are woefully unprepared for these circumstances). It'll be a miracle if they clean this mess up before Christmas.

Under similar circs (power outage, in our cases typically caused by hurricanes) the propane ring and deep turkey frying pot come out. Cajun fried turkey = yummm. As for BBQ you need to either have a big spit, smoker or able to carve it into smaller pieces first.

We're having prime rib instead this year.

griffin1108, pogo stick temps - I like it. That's what we've been experiencing in Texas. Last two days have been near 80 and woke up to 34 this morning (all f).

My father-in-law is staying with us for a few says until his power come back on. He lives near Campbellville, ON, and trees are down all over his property, and the power line is down in several places on his property from the highway to the house.

The highway that runs past his property is a mess of ice and broken trees.

He will need a tree service to clear the property before the crews from Hydro can come in to replace the downed lines.

Been there in 1998. We had no power for over a week.

My sister and brother-in-law in Etobicoke are without power, staying with his mother who has a fireplace and gas stove.

Here's hoping that power is restored as soon as possible.

Hang in there

As much as these storms are awful, it's impressive how much they can bring people together. Where you might resist engaging with a neighbor normally, people tend to come together and help out....maybe not everyone, but it seems to bring out the "better angels of our nature." We had straight line winds in my neighborhood that uprooted a 40 foot spruce tree and laid it across the road, snapped off an ash tree a foot in diameter and broke a bunch of branches onto my roof. After the storm passed, there were a half-dozen neighbors in the road checking on each other, chainsaws came out and the road was cleared, and I somehow had 4 guys on my roof getting branches off (not the smartest move, but it did help burn off adrenaline).

Hope all of you up there get some warmth and light soon, hopefully in time to enjoy Christmas.

ckaiserca, that tree hanging over the road reminds me of the last ice storm we had (nowhere as bad as yours).....one of my small birches was hanging over the road, easy to drive around as there's hardly any traffic. The yahoo from the township cut it off halfway up, when it would have sprung back in it's own by the next day when the ice melted.