If you don’t live in or near central Massachusetts, you may not know how much havoc was wreaked by last week’s ice storm.  The library in which I work is located in central Mass, and storm-related power outages have forced us to be closed Friday, Saturday, and Monday.  As of this writing, we’re not sure of our status for Tuesday.  The schools in town are closed at least through Thursday.  Jim and I live two towns over, and were spared any damage or power outages, but most of our neighboring towns were hit as hard as the town I work in.  We’ve talked to many people in those affected towns who have said that their homes are a frosty 46 degrees, and have no idea when their power will be restored.

I had to drive out to the library on Monday to sign for Jim’s FedEx-shipped Christmas gift (at the time I ordered it, it seemed like a fabulous idea to have it delivered to the library, where there’s always someone to sign for packages – not seeming like such a great idea anymore…), and I was blown away by the damage along the road starting only about two miles from our house.  Tall deciduous trees were snapped in half; evergreen branches were down everywhere; and at one point in the road the power line was sagging down almost to the ground, obviously stretched by the weight of the ice.  Power line crews and tree crews were everywhere along the road, looking weary and overwhelmed.  I waved thanks to one police officer directing traffic, and I could swear I could see dark baggy circles under his eyes.

I’ve heard the damage from this storm described two ways by people who live in my library’s town:  “like a war zone” and “looks like a tornado went through.”  Neither is an exaggeration.  It looks like it will be a long time before the cleanup from the storm is complete, and I’m sure we’ll be talking about it for even longer.