Londonderry News

On December 12, 2008, Londonderry, and much of the state of New Hampshire, awoke to no power or heat, ice covered trees and roads, and closed schools and businesses. During the night before, sleet and freezing rain hit the region and took down trees and power lines.

“PSNH reports that about 200,000 of its 500,000 customers are without power” was the estimate as of 4:30 that morning. That number, as reported by the State Utilities, reached 326,000, for both homes and businesses, at 10:30 AM. PSNH expected to have about 180 PSNH line and contract crews working to fix down lines at about 6:00 AM. However, they were unable to say how long it would be before everyone had power on again. “Given the high number of scattered power outages, PSNH anticipates that it could take several days to have power fully restored to all customers. The company asks customers without power to plan for this possibility.” The Governor declared a state of emergency.

Not a single Gas station in Londonderry had power at sunrise or even through most of the day. The only station running that first morning was at the Walmart in nearby Derry.

The Londonderry High School Gym first opened to residents at 10:30 as a warming center, and later became a Red Cross Shelter. Gas stations that were open had long waiting lines and a few pharmacies were open with backup power. Home Depot was the only place that had propane, however quickly ran out shortly after power was restored to them.

Several roads were closed throughout Londonderry, including High Range, part of Mammoth, South Road, Pillsbury, Stonehenge, Sargent Road, and part of Auburn Road. The road closures were a result of power lines and trees being down in the roads. Residents were urged to consider all wires active and call the Londonderry Police or Fire Department to report any down wires. They were also warned not to leave burning candles unattended or use their unmaintained fire places. The Fire Department also asked the residents not to try to remove trees if they were unfamiliar with a chainsaw or knew they could not handle the tree once cut.

Please feel free to leave your memories of the storm by selecting comments.

To read the original articles from one year ago today, “Day 1” click on the following links:

Londonderry Power Out 200,000 Without Power in New Hampshire The first estimate of customers without power. Click to find out more.

Londonderry Blackout Gives a few road closures and a brief overview of the destruction. Discover a few places that had power.

New’s From the Schools Letting us know what would be happening that weekend. Click to find out whether churches would hold their services.

High School Gym a Red Cross Shelter Declares the Gym as the Red Cross Shelter. Also includes excerpts from the Fire Department and the town manager. Find out what they had to say about the outages.