It started rather simple, a snowstorm traveling up the eastern seaboard. People in New England are used to this. We’re a hearty folk. They are often called Nor’Easters and can produce substantial snowfall, wind and nasty conditions. But they pass and the cleanup takes a day or so.If you’re from New England you come to expect this. But once in a lifetime a storm comes along to set the stage to be a different kind of storm.
The only Alfred I ever knew was a character in a movie. I’ve known Al’s and Fred’s but never Alfred’s. That is until the Great Halloween Nor’Easter of 2011. As it meandered up the coast line, we all thought it would be a chunk of snow, a great inconvenience and maybe–possibly, an overnight without power. No-one really knew Alfred’s power– or maybe we should say his thirst for taking power away from the masses. He sounds like a dictator doesn’t he? Well in Connecticut he dictated everybody’s life for the better part of a week. You see Alfred turned the great state of Connecticut into streets filled with wreckage from broken trees and downed power lines by the thousands. In fact across the state there was so many outages at its peak, that over two thirds of the state was in darkness.
Now I think anybody named Alfred in Connecticut is feeling a need to shorten their name just be discreet, so they don’t get verbally taunted. Alfred is now so famous he will go down in history as one of the most damaging Nor’Easters to ever hit the east-coast.
No-one ever could imagine a cancelled Halloween–or power out in some areas for well over a week. I wonder how often in the last century schools across much of an entire state were cancelled for a full week– due to one storm; especially in October?
But, as I said Alfred was power hungry. The dangers of that hunger proved to be significant. There were downed power lines scattering every other street in one town, and universally over 100 counties had significant darkness at the peak of the outages. It was “Tree Apocalypse”, The sheer weight of the fall snow storm over the autumn foliage was too much to bare for even the most sturdy of Connecticut trees, and they snapped throughout the night in almost every neighborhood in the state. In some areas the “pop,pop,pop” made the falling trees sound as if there was nearby gunfire, other times it was as if the amplified sounds of Rice Krispies cereal had taken residence in the neighborhoods. “Snap, Crackle, Pop” was echoed throughout the night of the storm. In fact, most everyone was ill prepared for the sight of felled trees by the dozens on many streets on the morning of Sunday October 30th.
Few knew the reality of what was yet to come. The damage to the power stations and power lines was so vast that electric power was now on sabbatical. Over 800,000 residents lost power for a time, costing the state and its residents a weeks paid vacation in Connecticut. But this kind of paid vacation was for many homeowners a payment out –not a payment in. Many residents and businesses found the blackened power outage caused them to go into the “red”. As for costly vacations- Alfred was more expensive than a cruise around the world would have been and a lot less pleasant. In fact most everyone in Connecticut paid dearly for Alfred’s visit, except the ocean-side areas –which barely knew Alfred at all,. After Hurricane Irene hit just a few months earlier, this was a blessing for the coast.
Alfred was quite an nasty visitor, the kind you never want to invite back. But in spirit he will be memorialized like a great baseball player that becomes a legend. He hit more homes than Babe Ruth hit homers –just in one county alone.
The tough parts were not just the darkness, but it was the chill that creeps into your bones that you can’t get out, the frigid sponge bathing, the cold food, the lack of places open to go to eat, and the many closed stores in which to even buy food. Then there was the twenty mile track to find an open gas station that had gas, and the navigation through the towns along the way. It was nothing shy of a maze of trying to avoid the gas lines and the power lines, both of which took up much of the roadways of the towns. Certainly, the first responders were great, the tree and power line crews diligent and the common thread of mankind was comforting. But at night in the dark with outside temperatures hovering in the twenties– nestled without heat, waiting to see if the many candles that were burning could increase the heat by more than a mere 3 degrees–dismay set in. As the thermometer plateaued at a raw 62 degrees, it was a bit much to say the least, for once the candles ceased and sleep set in– it dropped into the 50’s.
For some, the week of darkness dragged on into week two; for me, it was eighty hours of darkness. Oh the snow, as always with early storms melted. But the storm left a chill in the hearts and minds of Connecticut that will not soon be forgotten.