Governor declares state of emergency; reports of ice, flood damage everywhere
Iceberries photographed this morning by Kelly.
But will Patrick show up on TV in a cardigan?
Correspondents outside 128 tell tales of crashing trees, flooding, power going out:
In Littleton, Kelly reports:
Woke up at 2am this morning to the sounds of trees breaking and cracking and falling. Woke up this morning to no power.
To her west, Jody woke up to a flooded basement:
I hadn't brought up all the Christmas stuff yet. I just want to cry.
Peter Chianca: Just got power back - but no TV phone or 'net. Just me and my BlackBerry against the world.
James Ryan Moreau checks in from a darkened Worcester:
No coffee maker today forced me to take desperate measures... a.k.a. waiting in line for Dunkin Donuts
Keith Shaw, in the Worcester area: Tree fell on our deck at 5:30 am - loud as hell.
It's not so hot inside 128, either:
Fabulously Out There slogs in from East Boston:
I suppose rain is 100% better than ice rain. but still. Winter coat now has 2 pounds of water in it.
Stales: I think I saw Noah and his ark floating down Storrow Drive this morning!
It wasn't much better on the other river road. Leonnea: Mem Drive is a parking lot.
A Girl Must Shop: 1.5 hrs to get to work to find out the office was closed.
Also see: The T is not the Postal Service, so forget that thing about the rain and sleet.
Comments
This should be fun...
With temperatures dropping to around 20 by tonight our roads are about to turn into hockey rinks...
Soldiers Field by IHOP was a lake this morning. I've heard Storrow by the BU exit is in similar condition.
Just as well that Franklin
Just as well that Franklin Park was closed today, since that route to work would have eventually put me up at the flooded IHOP area.
The manholes on the ramp to the Pike west were bubbling like fountains.
Hey I see the sun! It looks
Hey I see the sun! It looks like we may have a few hours of draining before the freeze hits.
The Silver Thaw
Interesting.
"ZR" aka "The Silver Thaw" is a common form of winter mayhem in the Northwest and British Columbia, but I didn't much see it out here until recent years. My husband only remembers a couple of incidents in the way past, but nothing like recent times have brought.
west central ma reporting in
Out just west of Sturbridge writing in by blackberry - no power since about middle of night- torrential rain fall all right and loud crashes - awoke to 6 story trees bent to the ground and many simple crushed by thick ice. Its 10ish now and still no power and most importantly no coffee.
Anyone know why Franklin
Anyone know why Franklin Park was closed this morning? What that weather related?
Report from Sterling
...From the Parents.
Power went out around 6 last night and everything is covered in inches of ice. Utilities in the town say it could be 3 days until they get all areas back up and running.
They saw a transformer blow down the street around 5am, which must be happening all over. Rt 12 was closed down. Trees and debris everywhere, branches breaking and leaning over roadways.
Called to see if they could stay with me for a few days.
Is it me, or is this the storm that the weather guys should have been swooning over, yet completely missed? As opposed to the first storm to bring an inch.
Sterling is a disaster
Worst Ice I've seen in 37 years of living in Northern Worcester County. As of about 11:00 am all of Sterling, Lancaster, and most of Clinton were without power. Many roads were impassable. Rte. 62 from Clinton into Sterling was still closed as of 2:00 pm.
Fuller reports at my blog, No Drumlins.
Photos from Worcester
Worcester Ice Storm 2008.
Fallen tree parts, with a note:
Daily Worcesteria reports:
Traffic, yet no traffic
I took a cab from Central Square around 9 am, and the driver said every other route into Boston was flooded, jammed or closed. A guy who drove in via Storrow Drive confirmed the traffic jams. And I just got a call from someone who's on Storrow Drive near the Brighton-Boston line, and she's stuck too.
Yet, right now, I see very few cars in the westbound or eastbound lanes of Storrow, and it's moving well as you approach Kenmore. Mem Drive looks the same near MIT, and Mass Ave is moving fine over the bridge, both directions.
Stay tuned to your puzzled traffic center.. me.
Deep water in Newton
Video of flooding on Nahanton Street.
#$@!ing twitter
Seriously- what's with the twitter infatuation recently (and especially today?) If I want to read facebook-esque inane "statuses" of strangers, I'll go over to twitter and look myself.
Now git off mah lawn, dang kids.
I read Twitter so you don't have to
This morning, a lot of people were twittering about the godawful weather and the T. Not a lot of people were blogging about them. So I went with Twitter and re-posted what I thought were the best tweets.
Twits
I have to agree. If I follow a link from UniversalHub, I expect it to lead to something more than 140 characters long.
Maybe a different kind of link for tweets
For people who do want to follow the links, so maybe something like
Twitterer1234: "Ice was falling like rocks from the sky." [Tweet URL here].
So you'll know it's a tweet and either click or ignore.
Invisible links?
Adam, I was just giving you crap about it. I do find "twitter" to be idiotic, but I wasn't terribly serious :)
Dang straight
We need to make sure UHub only links to the finest material on the web.
I Was Got!
Damn you, Brett!
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Well, at least ...
He didn't link you to something like this.
I knew what it was, and I
I knew what it was, and I still clicked. I hate you Adam Gaffin.
Is this any better?
Is this any better?
That's pretty good
But a day like this really calls for the classics.
I think you meant to link to
I think you meant to link to this version all along.
OMG, it all makes sense now!
In your yard I am the Ferengi man, fairly odd and chunky, indeed.
No, no, don't say that
Say hijo de puta instead. Hay que decirlo mas!
I should have expected that
Only I didn't.
I also hate you, Adam Gaffin!
aw, c'mon
That is truly the finest material the web ever produced. It's CLASSIC.
Truthfully?
I was kind of scared that maybe you were being uber-sarcastic and had linked to one of my own posts. That's why I clicked it.
(And, to answer the obvious question raised by the above: Yes, it is scary having a massive ego and massive insecurities at the same time :-) )
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
President-elect Obama weighs in on emergency
Video of Barack discussing the predicament.
All of his moves are the
All of his moves are the same no matter where he is lol. He just kinda bunches up his shoulders and steps back and forth.
Marlboro DPW worker goes missing
Last seen leaving DPW around 5 a.m. to salt, sand roads; his truck was found abandoned nearby.
At least it was pretty
Richard Beaubien took this photo in his front yard in Bolton this morning.
Fractals
Streamingmeemee took some interesting photos in Andover this morning.
What the hell. I went to
What the hell. I went to sleep at 3:30am and woke up at 8am (paper) and didnt notice a thing.
Did this storm not hit the fenway area?
Just rain around here
In Somerville the storm wasn't cold enough to cause ice, and I suspect the same was true in the Fenway.
Thank the gods for working @ home
After last night being a little darker than usual in Arlington, we woke late and drove to Mahoney's (Winchester) to get our tree. Other than the major waterfall coming down that giant rock wall, it was surprisingly nice weather! Interesting seeing the variety of holiday stuff at Mahoney's that's already on 20% discount too. I can't wait until the after Christmas sales this year.
Then we both opted to stay home instead of braving Cambridge traffic, even in mid-day. Phew!
And yes, I remember our governor in a sweater fondly (no, not That way myself) on that very, very, snowy week.
Of course, you realize, this is no Blizzard of '78
Ooh, I wonder when we'll hear the first Blizzard of '78 comparison from Harv this year.
Maynard vs. Boxborough
Kate West: "Maynard is just soggy but boxborough looks like an ice bomb went off" [Tweet].
Ride to VT tonight
Just got to VT from Hopkinton, via rte 2, Fitchburg, 140 N thru Winchendon, rte 12 thru Keene, etc.
The second we got off rte 2, there was no power anywhere. No traffic lights, no lights, period. All the way thru Winchendon, across the border into Fitzwilliam (some lights there). Some power lines down on streets. From Troy northward, everything was fine. Spooky ride.