Ravaged Massachusetts

Quick post from storm ravaged Massachusetts.

On Saturday October 29th, a major winter storm hit New England and has literally paralyzed many areas of this part of the country. The area I live in, which is Western Massachusetts, saw about a foot of snow which while not unheard of around here, the damage it has brought is unusual. Because of the storm’s early arrival, leaves were still on trees and most of the western part of the state, as well as other areas of New England, have lost power due to fallen trees. After driving around this area hunting for gas and food over the past few days, I am shocked that more people were not injured or killed. There has been one death that I am aware of related to this storm.

That was three days ago. I am forty years old and have never experienced anything like this. It is difficult to find gas in this area and food is limited to non-perishables at stores with no power. Some areas are slowly having power restored thanks to the efforts of our local power companies as well as many out-of-state companies. However the damage is great due to the amount of downed trees and power lines. Communication is difficult however appears to be improving very slowly.

My boyfriend and I are fortunate because I know one person who did not lose power through the grace of God. We have been staying at my brother’s house about 25 minutes away from us. Our home has no heat, electricity, or running water (we have a well) therefore we are quite grateful to be here. Our dog Molly was spending an overnight with a dog sitter Saturday night until Sunday afternoon. Thank God she was there because we were unable to get back to our home Saturday night and have not been able to stay at our house since. Our dog sitter also lost power but she got a generator and has agreed to keep Molly with them until we can bring her back home. The circumstances at my brother’s home make it difficult to have her here as my parents are also camping out here during the day. I am so grateful for this dog sitter.

We were finally able to get to our home after the police gave us permission to drive down to the house to get my medications, clothes, etc. Then yesterday Chuck and I went back to make the driveway accessible and clean up some trees. The house is in one piece. The worst thing that happened was we lost a good majority of our perishable food and will probably lose the fish tank.

I plan to write more about the experience in the near future but the shoveling I did yesterday (Chuck was doing trees), sleeping on an air mattress for several nights, the change in my environment (i.e. dryness factor), and overall stress has made an already existing autoimmune flare worse. I have no access to my acupuncturist right now for obvious reasons so I caved and took some narcotics and am going to try and get some rest in my brother’s bed while he is at work and Chuck is at work. I am hoping later today or more likely tomorrow to get to my dog sitter’s house to spend some time with Molly. Meanwhile, we wait for the power to be restored and for life to return to a more normal state. We also sit in the great appreciation of how fortunate we are.

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