The Rains Came, the Winds Blew and the Power Kuputzed

It is so good to be in my nice, warm, cozy bed tonight with the power and heat on in the house. Anyone watching the news the past couple of days knows that a HUGE storm hit New England. Depending on where you were, you either got rain or snow, but I think everyone got the wind. I have never in my life experienced wind like I did last night. According to my neighbors, the winds blew up to 90 mph! I believe it.

Our power went out about 11ish last night. The kids were already in bed and asleep, but the wind must've awakened Shaylen. When she awoke to a pitch black room and howling winds outside, she was terrified. Her cries woke up Marshall which put them both in our bed. None of us got much sleep. I think with every howl of wind Shaylen scooted closer to me. I doubt you could've squeezed a piece of paper between us.

When we dragged ourselves out of bed this morning I checked our yard. There was debris everywhere. In the back just behind the garage an extremely large limb or section of a pine tree had cracked off. I'm so thankful that it didn't hit the garage because it could've done significant damage. The break was wa-a-a-a-y up in the tree. I pointed that out in the picture below left and below on the right (after the "..."). Taigen's going to have a fun time chopping this up and getting rid of all the wood.

When we ventured out in the car, we were surprised to see huge trees snapped in two or yanked out of the ground entirely, roots and all. Pine needles were scattered all over the road. Small streams became rivers today and many roads were blocked because of flooding or trees lying in the middle of the road. Lots of businesses and homes were without power. The power at the church was out and we were unable to access the building because the road was blocked off. Hopefully everything will be back to normal by Sunday. Starbucks was open however. I was so thankful for this (and the gift card I had gotten for Christmas...thank you Sherry or Kyle). It was warm, huge and had caffeine...something very important since I was lacking in sleep and energy.

We were able to go over to our friends' house today (the Meroffs). It was nice to be in a heated home, check email and also recharge my cell phone. I was able to bring soup to be heated so we even got a warm meal tonight.

When we were on our way back home, the kids and I were watching for lights in homes to see if they had power. We got so excited as we saw lights on in homes even as we got closer to our own. When we pulled into our driveway and saw our porch light on, we all cheered! So thankful for all of the hard work our utility workers put in today so that we could have power. Approximately 300,000 homes were without power in NH today. That's a lot!