The McLeod Family: Disaster!

On October 29, 2011, we had a very unique snowstorm. All of the leaves were still on the trees, so they were not ready for the 20 inches of snow that fell at our house and around Connecticut and Massachusetts. We lost power in the afternoon right as the snow started to fall. We sat in our home and listened as loud cracking sounds filled the air every 5-10 minutes all evening. We prayed fervently for protection from the elements, as we were afraid for our home because of the many large trees within striking distance of our house. We had a hard time sleeping, and after one particularly loud whump, we got out of bed and went to a different room further from the trees surrounding our house.

Approximately 800,000 homes in Connecticut lost electricity due to the incredible amount of falling tree limbs. Most of the towns around us were entirely shut down. We could not get out of our driveway the next morning due to the large tree limb and snow drifts across it, and then our street had many tree limbs in it with several downed power lines strewn on the ground as well. We quickly realized that we were not going to church, or perhaps anywhere for a while. We gave a fervent prayer of thanks when we saw that the top half of a large tree had broken and fallen within six feet of our house and bedroom, tearing off our power and cable lines. We felt strongly that we and our home had specifically been protected during the storm by our Heavenly Father.

Our driveway

This tree in our front yard split down the middle and the top broke off ...

... falling next to the corner of the house and ...

... taking out the power and cable lines, but missing the house!!!

Brad spent all day with the chainsaw, snowblower, and shovel, clearing the debris. He stayed home from work on Monday as well due to the power lines and no plowing because of the tree limbs. The street was clear enough by late Monday that Brad went to work on Tuesday, passing under about 10 different downed power lines or poles on the way to work.

One key issue quickly became the shortage of gasoline as many gas stations had no power to run their pumps. This eased after a few days as generators were purchased or some power lines were restored. We were very grateful that our church leaders have consistently recommended that we store a supply of food and water in our homes for times of emergency. We were not afraid of being able to survive through the storm if stuck in our home for any length of time. We got the generator running to power the water pump and the furnace, so we had hot water and offered it to our neighbors. We also had a great little cook stove/oven that Maren had bought a few years ago for cooking our food. We felt very blessed to be so prepared.