People can't keep up with the snow'; cities’ snowiest months on re

HOLLY NOTE: Whether it's due to a cascading grid failure causing the enormous US-Canada blackout of 2003, the massive grid failure in Florida yesterday who's cause remains a mystery, these massive snow storms this winter, the horrific 2005 hurricane season or this year's hellish start to tornado season or escalating earthquake events, we are increasingly vulnerable to a fragile, over-taxed, antiquated power grid with escalating natural disasters.

With increasingly chaotic weather and a growing number of power outages, everyone should own and know how to select and safely operate a home generator. It is simply too life-threatening to be without one.

February 27, 2008

By The Associated Press

Towering snowbanks got higher around northern New England as yet another storm swept into the winter-weary region.

In Vermont, Burlington's 7.6 inches pushed the official snowfall past the February record of 34.3 inches and the winter record from December, January and February of 96.9 inches.

Photo: David Fitch shovels the snow off the roof of his sugar house in Calais, Vt., Monday, Feb. 25, 2008. (By Toby Talbot, AP)

Accumulations approaching a foot of new snow were common in Vermont, with Landgrove in Bennington County getting 11 inches, Woodstock and Windsor 10 inches and Cornwall, in Addison County, 9 inches.

In New Hampshire, Concord already had set a record for the snowiest December, January and February and the storm brought the total for the three months to 97.5 inches. For the entire snow season, Concord has seen 99.6 inches, off the record of 122 inches, set in the winter of 1873-74, but still enough to make it the 10th snowiest winter on record.

Meteorologist Steve Capriola said there is time to hit that mark.

"We still have the rest of February, March and maybe April to work on that total," he said Wednesday.

Some areas of central New Hampshire got a foot in the latest storm.

Maine's heaviest snowfall came in the western part of the state, where Eustis and Bridgton topped 11 inches. Jackman, Raymond and Rumford reach recorded 10 inches or more. On the coast, the snow mixed with rain. York, Maine, received only 2 inches of snow.

The storm kept Caribou on pace to possibly break the all-time snow record of 181.1 inches for the entire season, said Mark Turner from the National Weather Service. As of Wednesday morning, the city had seen 144.5 inches.

Communities across the region have been using up salt and sand supplies, residents have run out of places to pile snow pushed aside from their driveways, and snowbanks higher than cars and as solid as concrete line many roads.

For plow truck drivers, the storm meant more overtime.

"We'll be plowing for the next couple of days, at least," said Steve Goodkind, director of public works in Burlington, Vt. "It keeps us busy. But now that we know there are warmer, sunnier days coming, it's OK."

Capriola said even the tough Yankees of northern New England were getting frustrated by the wintry weather.

"People are finally getting to the point where they are saying 'Enough already. It's time to shut it off,"' Capriola said.

And there may be more on Friday and Saturday, he said. Asked if there is any end in sight, Capriola deadpanned: "June."

The snow caused power outages around New Hampshire. Public Service Company said at the height of the problem during the night, about 10,000 homes and businesses had no power. That number was down to about 950 after dawn, mostly in the Monadnock Region and in the Barrington and Farmington areas.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/winter/2008-02-26-ne-snow_N.htm

www.standeyo.com/NEWS/08_Earth_Changes/080228.New.England.snow.html