The December 2008 Northeastern United States ice storm was a damaging ice storm that took out power for millions of people in the

Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...

. The storm was deemed the worst ice storm in a decade for New England and the most severe ice storm in 21 years for Upstate New York. Damage was primarily a result of fallen trees and fallen utility wires and

poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

, which were coated in a heavy layer of ice. The storm raised heavy controversy over the slow return of power, as at the storm's peak, as many as 1.7 million customers were without power. Days after the storm more than 800,000 customers were still without power. Almost a week after the storm still more than 100,000 customers were without power, affecting the holiday shopping season and crippling the business and transportation of many northeast cities for days.

Response

The storm resulted in a

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...

being declared by Governor David Paterson in sixteen counties in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Up to 300,000 utility customers lost service in New York's Capital District. By Sunday evening, 14 December, 126,000 were still estimated to be without power. Fire departments in Albany and Rensselaer County ran non-stop all weekend answering calls ranging from fires to wires down. It is estimated that both counties received tens of thousands of calls by the Saturday after the storm. In Massachusetts up to one million residents and businesses lost power due to the storm, causing Governor

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was first elected in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney, who ...

to declare a state of emergency and mobilize at least 500 National Guardsmen to help the clean-up efforts. Governors John Lynch of New Hampshire and John Baldacci of Maine also declared a state of emergency, and as of 13 December at least 400,000 customers were without power in New Hampshire, and at least 172,000 were without power in Maine. This total in New Hampshire was more than five times larger than those who lost power in the

ice storm of 1998 The North American Ice Storm of 1998 (also known as Great Ice Storm of 1998) was a massive combination of five smaller successive ice storms in January 1998 that struck a relatively narrow swath of land from eastern Ontario to southern Quebec, N ...

, previously the most devastating storm on record. It was also reported that over 30,000 customers were left without power in Vermont, and up to 3,700 customers were left without power in Connecticut. The

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

of Northeastern New York opened multiple shelters around the Capital District to give residents a warm place to stay and eat.

Fatalities

At least four deaths were attributed to the storm. Three of them were due to carbon monoxide poisoning, the source of which were gas-powered generators that were used indoors. One carbon-monoxide-related death was in New Hampshire, and the other two were in New York. The fourth fatality occurred in Massachusetts. A public works employee was found in a reservoir after having gone missing when investigating damage to trees.

Aftermath

Hotels, hardware stores, malls, and restaurants that either had power or a generator saw a boom in business during the entire weekend as many residents went out to finish up holiday shopping, eat, and stay warm. Most schools closed on Friday 12 December, and some colleges ended the semester early due to the severity of the storm. Fourteen days after the storm hit, several thousand homes throughout New Hampshire were still without power, which in some cases resulted in threats being made against workers of Public Service Company of New Hampshire (a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities), the principal electricity supplier of New Hampshire. Similarly, there were many people in Massachusetts without power for up to two weeks, raising many questions about the slow response of some utility companies. Several weeks after the New England storm, a similar ice storm struck the Midwestern United States, knocking out power to a million people and leading to at least 38 deaths.

Media and coverage

The storm and its aftermath were covered extensively by local newspapers such as ''

The Keene Sentinel ''The Keene Sentinel'' is an independently owned daily newspaper published in Keene, New Hampshire. It currently publishes six days a week. The ''Sentinel'' is the fifth oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States, having operate ...

'' and the '' Monadnock Ledger-Transcript'' in New Hampshire. Books detailing the storm's toll include ''The Weight of the Ice'' by David Eisenstadter, ''Black Ice'' compiled from various New Hampshire authors, and ''Ice'' by the staff of ''The Keene Sentinel''.

Gallery

Image:20081214-shrewsbury-ice-storm-damage-looking-towards-church-1.jpg, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts town square after the storm Image:2008NYSIceStorm2.JPG, Power lines support ice-covered branches in Brunswick, New York Image:December 2008 ice storm Dutchess County 3.JPG, Landscape coated in ice in Dutchess County, New York Image: Frozen_blades_of_grass_in_southern_nh.JPG, Frozen blades of grass in

Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Hillsborough County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 census, the population was 422,937, almost one-third the population of the entire state. Its county seats are Manchester and Nashua, the state's ...

Image: Downed tree snowmobile path dec 2008.JPG, A broken tree branch, suspended from luckier trees, hanging over a snowmobile path in a forest in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Image: Frozen evergreens december 2008 ice storm.JPG, A frozen forest in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Image: Frozen forest behind swingset dec 2008 ice storm.JPG, A frozen forest behind a swingset in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Image: Frozen lawn with trees december 2008 ice storm.JPG, A frozen lawn and trees with houses in background, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Image: 2008NYSIceStorm.JPG, Damage in North Greenbush, New York after the storm Image: Winter_08_124.jpg, Damage in Clifton Park, New York after the storm File:December 2008 ice storm damage at Storm King trailhead.jpg, Damage at the Storm King Mountain trailhead,

Cornwall, New York Cornwall is a town in Orange County, New York, United States, approximately north of New York City on the western shore of the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was at 12,884. Cornwall has become a bedroom community for area t ...

References