N.H. residents deal with power outages, fallen branches in aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

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The Korner Kupboard needed to borrow a generator, the Canterbury Fire Department had 14 volunteers on overnight, and several people had trees smash into their trucks or homes.

These are glimpses of the disruptions caused by Hurricane Sandy as it rolled into central New Hampshire late Monday afternoon. By yesterday, crews had cleaned up most of the debris from the road in the Concord area, but many residents were left without power. Although the storm brought inconveniences, many people said it wasn’t the worst storm they had seen and that they had prepared for harsher weather.

When the Korner Kupboard on North State Street lost power, the owners were lucky enough to have customers who offered to lend them a generator, said owner Gerri Hill. They consolidated all of the frozen items into a small ice cream cooler and all of the dairy products into one refrigerator. The power only went out for three hours, and none of the food went bad, Hill said.

“We just prepared for the worst and it worked out well,” she said.

Hundreds of residents in Canterbury also experienced power outages, some lasting into yesterday afternoon. In the early afternoon yesterday, utility workers were still cleaning up some large trees that had fallen in Canterbury. On Baptist Hill Road, for example, a tree that fell was hanging on a power line, and crews worked for several hours to clean it up. A portion of Shaker Road was also blocked off and a giant oak tree laid sprawled across it. Around noon yesterday, no crews were at work cleaning it up, and residents on nearby Wyven Road still did not have power.

Two of those residents were Cory Luneau and Ashley Goudreau, who live in the last house on Wyven Road, which is in the woods. They lost power in the early afternoon Monday. They filled the bathtub with water to prepare for the storm and were still able to cook dinner on their wood stove. Luneau kept his two sons, ages 2 and 4, occupied with coloring books and Play-Doh, but they did keep asking to watch TV, he said.

Luneau said he predicted it would be days before they had power again, but he wasn’t worried. Yesterday afternoon he and Goudreau were headed to a friend’s house who did have power for a few hours.

Although the two live in the woods, their house was not damaged by the storm. Leaves and broken tree branches scattered the yard, but none fell on the house. Not everyone fared so well. On Mountain Road in Concord, Chris Mayo was busy cleaning up a tree about 10 inches in diameter that had fallen on his mother’s garage and smashed through the roof. His mother was not at home at the time, but her house still did not have power as of yesterday early afternoon.

Mayo’s friend who was helping with the clean-up, Shay McCoy, said a tree about 25 inches in diameter smashed into his truck at his home in Bow Monday evening, completely destroying the windshield.

Also in Canterbury, David and Janet Lamb were without power into yesterday afternoon. The two were glad the rain had stopped and the sun was out, however, because they build furniture and still need to finish a piece for a show on tomorrow.

“Luckily we don’t need electricity, but we do need light,” David said, as Janet stood near the window sanding and finishing the door of a large wooden cupboard the two were preparing to show.

Their power had been out since late Monday afternoon. They had planned to cook dinner on a gas grill, but ran out of gas part way through and had to finish cooking the salmon and potatoes on an old cooking grill and ate it by candlelight.

“It was romantic,” David said.

Over in Webster, Gaye and Richard Marrotte were one of many households to use a generator for power during the outage. Their power went out around 3 p.m. Monday and came back on at 11:30 a.m. yesterday, Gaye said. They purchased a generator after experiencing a previous outage that lasted almost two weeks, when they lost all of the food in their freezers.

Compared to that storm and others, the Marrotte’s didn’t see the fuss about Hurricane Sandy.

“This was nothing,” Richard said. “It was just a little wind storm and a little rain.”

(Kathleen Ronayne can be reached at 369-3309 or kronayne@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @kronayne.)