No juice - Thousands without power after storm

Mike Gilbert, climber for Sonny and Sons Tree Service, uses a chainsaw to remove portions of a large pine tree that fell on a home on Hoadley Road in Belmont. Many trees in the area were blown down during Tuesday's storm. (Adam Drapcho/Laconia Daily Sun)

By RICK GREEN, LACONIA DAILY SUN

BELMONT — Watching as a pine tree was removed from his roof on Wednesday, John Mandriol said the storm that blew through a day earlier was like "freaking Armageddon."

His home on Hoadley Road was one of several that were damaged in a Nor'easter that dropped more than a foot of snow and raked the area with gusts topping 50 mph. One 16-year-old girl died in a traffic accident on a snowy road in Gilford.

Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid said it dispatched emergency services for 163 calls Tuesday, compared to about 69 on an average day. Those calls included 103 fire reports, including trees down on wires, as well as 12 motor vehicle accidents and 37 medical incidents.

MetroCast, which provides telephone, Internet and cable television services, had an outage that disrupted service to customers in communities served by its Belmont office. By Wednesday evening, the company said about half those communities, including Laconia, were back online. Its phone system for reporting outages was also restored about the same time, after being down since Tuesday.

Meanwhile, electrical utility crews restored power to nearly 40,000 customers statewide, but another 10,000 remained without electrical service in Belmont, Moultonborough, Tuftonboro, Sandwich, Center Harbor, Meredith, Gilmanton and elsewhere. Most should have their service back by Thursday night, the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative said.

Mandriol said that during the storm, he and his wife went on their front porch to look at a tree that fell on a power line leading to an outbuilding. That's when they heard a tree falling in their direction.

"I looked up and saw that coming at me," he said. "I thought I was a dead man."

The couple emerged unhurt.

"I'm the luckiest man on the face of the Earth," Mandriol said.

March snowstorms aren't unusual, but winds like this are extraordinary, said Bob Marine, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Gray, Maine.

"The strong winds were widespread throughout New England," he said. "That much of an area under those kind of strong winds, that's what made this unique."

Snow accumulations of a foot or more were reported at numerous locations. Laconia had 18 inches. The peak wind recorded at Mount Washington was 123 mph.

Many residents were startled by the ferocity of the blow.

"It was almost like a jet motor, a constant roar for hours," said Rich Savary, who was trying to prevent water pipes from freezing in his home in Belmont on Wednesday. Without power for his furnace, the home had dropped to 39 degrees.

Mark Rancourt rode out the storm in his home in Belmont with his wife and two young children. His generator was going Wednesday. He lost three tall pine trees but luckily they fell in a direction away from the home.

"It was quite honestly pretty petrifying," he said. "It was the worst I've seen. We've had some pretty bad storms here, but I've not seen carnage like this."

These homes on Hoadley Road in Belmont had to deal with damage from falling trees after Wednesday's blizzard. (Courtesy photos)