Londonderry News

When December 13, 2008 dawned, there were still 314,000 PSNH customers without power. The extent of the damage was similar to that of the ice storm of January, 1998, where about 55,000 people were without power. The difference this time, was that the area of damage was much more wide-spread, “the entire southern tier of the state has been impacted.” And the next highest amount of power outages from one single storm was with “Bernice” in 1996, with an estimated 93,000 people without power. Thats less than one-third of the 320,000+ with the 2008 ice storm.

The Red Cross Shelter at the Londonderry High School Gym had about 115 people that had spent the night on cots. Most of the “residents” were from Londonderry, Derry, Litchfield, and a few were from Windham. Londonderry Volunteers were up cooking a breakfast of egg sandwiches that morning and coffee and juice were also provided. Hannaford and the New Hampshire Food Bank arrived just after breakfast to provide milk and orange juice. Residents were encouraged to shower and stay the night, as the temperature was supposed to drop to a mere 14 degrees that night.

Pep Boys had received a shipment of about 300 generators that day, but Benson’s and Home Depot had none. Benson’s was open and had enough propane for about a day, so residents were encouraged to arrive early to pick up propane for cooking and keeping pipes from freezing. The fire department was advising to call if you were unsure of the proper use. “One death has been reported in New Hampshire from a Generator that was to close to the house.”

At about 7 PM that evening, it was reported that about 15% of Londonderry had power. “PSNH cannot give any details.” As one resident put it in story comments, “Where’s Waldo…………or where’s the PSNH Truck………….seen one ??” Several roads were still impassible and most were beginning to get icy. (This was the birth of the “Where’s Watty” concept.  our illustrator would be creating cartoons to find Watty, hiding in Londonderry soon.)

There were still trees down everywhere. “Mother nature in all of her fury.” School was closed indefinitely on Monday, and there was still many unanswered questions about when exactly the power would be back on for everyone.

Please feel free to leave your comments on what you my remember.

To read more about this day one year ago, click the following links:

314,000 in New Hampshire Still Without Power This article also includes the Top 5 Power Outages in New Hampshire History. Find out what they were.

Londonderry Red Cross Shelter Half Full Includes an update on the shelter, plus updates on propane and generators. Click to discover what was said about connecting your generator to your home.

Londonderry Storm Shelter at 170, 85% Without Power Includes compliments to the Fire and Police Departments and ALERT. Find out if PSNH could give an estimate about when we would get power.