South Village Sugarhouse    

The photos below were taken on December 12, 2008.

On December 11th, it started to rain while I was out hunting.  It wasn't until the sun went down and I was walking home that I realized we were going to be in trouble.  There was already about 1/4" of ice on everything, and the weather was supposed to remain the same through the night.  I'm glad I went to the gas station that night to fill up my empty gas containers.  Little did I know that I would need to run our generator for 10 days while we were without power.

All through the night on December 11th, it sounded like gun shots outside our windows.  The sounds were of limbs up to 12 inches in diameter breaking away from the trees around our house.  When the sun came up the next day, it looked like a bomb had dropped on our town.  Trees and wires were down everywhere you looked.  Nearly every road was impassable.  There was 1/2" to 3/4" of ice on everything.  I was not able to get off my road, and needed a fellow firefighter to pick me up where the road was blocked so I could get to the Fire Station to begin our Emergency Management operations.

On December 21st, we finally had our power back.  This storm will not soon be forgotten.  There were many large maple trees that were damaged so severely that they will not survive.  Many were uprooted or broken in half.  Many others lost much of their crowns.  But, most will survive after healing for a few years.  We will resume tapping those that heal after about 3-5 years.