Post Historic October Major Nor’easter Coordination Message #4

November 5, 2011 Rob Macedo Leave a comment

Hello to all..

..Power continues to be restored across areas of New England hard hit by the historic and anomalous major nor’easter winter storm that severely impacted Western, Central and Northeast Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire and Connecticut..
..ARES/RACES/MARS and EMCOMM groups are beginning to stand down their monitoring of the situation as power returns to the region..
..A Federal disaster declaration has been given to Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire over the past 2 days. Links to the FEMA declaration news for these states are provided in this email..
..A web story on the Amateur Radio Response has been posted to the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) web site and has been added to the links below. An updated story may follow early next week..
..NWS Taunton has posted a web page review of the October Major Winter Storm including pictures from the spotter community. That link has also been added to the resource links below..
..An additional link from NECN Broadcast Meteorologist, Matt Noyes, has been added to this message in an effort to promote preparedness and self-sufficiency for the next major storm to affect the region down the road understanding that improvements can still be made to the utility company response..
..Realizing that there are still folks who may provide pictures and data are still without power, it is reminded that even pictures and damage info given days after the incident can be very useful in understanding the extent of damage and providing a historical record for such an anomalous event. Any pictures that would be shared with the media, emergency management and NWS officials can be sent to pics@nsradio.org and credit will be given to the spotter who provided the pictures unless otherwise indicated. State Emergency Management officials will be working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on damage assessment in many parts of New England starting on Monday and the pictures and data presented by SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur Radio Operators can help the damage assessment process..
..We extend a tremendous appreciation to all of our SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur Radio Operators that provided reports, pictures and video for this major storm and throughout the entire 2011 year which has been historic in terms of significant weather events affecting the region. This appreciation is detailed further in this coordination message..
..One more post storm coordination message which will likely be the final message may follow Sunday Evening or early this upcoming week. Web site resources that those with power can share with those that don’t have power are listed below to keep those ‘in the dark’ situationally aware of what is happening as far as restoration efforts..
..The first two paragraphs of this message, the last paragraph updating the next post storm coordination message and the web links mentioned in the prior headlines are the updates. Remainder is unchanged..

The Major Nor’easter of October 29th-30th has caused major impact to the region. Power outages remain but they are gradually being reduced across the region. As of 5 PM this evening, there were approximately 69,000 without power in Massachusetts (approximately 37,000 with Western Mass Electric and 31,000 with National Grid) with 250,000 still without power in Connecticut and now only 3,000 without power in New Hampshire.

As stated in the headlines, realizing that many folks who may provide pictures and data are still without power, it is reminded that even pictures and damage info given days after the incident can be very useful in understanding the extent of damage and providing a historical record for such an anomalous event. Any pictures that would be shared with the media, emergency management and NWS officials can be sent to pics@nsradio.org and credit will be given to the spotter who provided the pictures unless otherwise indicated. State Emergency Management officials will be working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on damage assessment in many parts of New England starting on Monday and the pictures and data presented by SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur Radio Operators can help the damage assessment process.

On behalf of the entire SKYWARN coordinator team and the National Weather Service forecast staff, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation and thanks to all the NWS Taunton area SKYWARN spotters and Amateur Radio Operators who provided us with valuable situational awareness data during this past October Nor’easter. There was not a moment during the 18 hour formal operations that we did not receive critical information from you folks. That information was of immeasurable value to all of our partners (i.e. the National Weather Service, the media, local, state and federal emergency management and all of our non-governmental organizations – Red Cross, Salvation Army, hospitals, Medical Reserve Corps, etc). This has been quite an active severe weather year, with the June 1st tornado outbreak, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, and now the October Nor’easter, not to mention the “normal” severe weather events we experienced. It is gratifying to see how well the training we go through pays off. We do not say Thank You enough to all of you for your support. We hear it from the NWS staff and the media all of the time, because we are right here with them, but that does not often get passed on to you folks – at least not often enough. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

One more post storm coordination message which will likely be the final message may follow Sunday Evening or early this upcoming week. Web site resources that those with power can share with those that don’t have power are listed below to keep those ‘in the dark’ situationally aware of what is happening as far as restoration efforts are listed below:

NWS Taunton Local Storm Report (Damage Reports):
http://beta.wx1box.org/local/lsr_10_30_11.txt

NWS Taunton Public Information Statement (Snowfall and Wind Gust Reports):
http://beta.wx1box.org/local/pns_10_30_11.txt

Connecticut Power and light (CL&P) Outage Map and Restoration Estimates Links:
http://outage.cl-p.com/outage/outagemap.aspx
http://www.cl-p.com/stormcenter/estimates/

Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH) Power Outage Map:
http://www.psnh.com/PowerOutagesStorms/Home/Storm-Updates.aspx

Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO) Outage Map:
http://www.wmeco.com/outage/

National Grid Outage Map:
http://http://www1.nationalgridus.com/masselectric/stormcenter/

CT-211 Web Site:
http://www.211ct.org/referweb/landing.aspx

ARRL Web Story – Amateurs Assist with Communications in Aftermath of Rare October Nor’easter:
http://www.arrl.org/news/amateurs-assist-with-communications-in-aftermath-of-rare-october-nor-easter

Matt Noyes: Can We Expect Long Power Outages Again?
http://www.mattnoyes.net/new_england_weather/2011/10/as-power-outages-continue-we-ask-should-such-long-outages-happen-and-can-we-expect-it-again.html

NWS Taunton October ‘Snowtober’ 2011 Review Link:
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/sigevents/Snowtober_2011/

FEMA Disaster Declaration News for Massachusetts:
http://www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=15992

FEMA Disaster Declaration News for Connecticut:
http://www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=15972

FEMA Disaster Declaration News for New Hampshire:
http://www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=15993

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
http://beta.wx1box.org