Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Mother Nature's Beauty and Wrath in Massachusetts


Today is the 1st anniversary of a blogging group known as New England Bloggers. To mark the day, we're having a blog carnival. Go and check out all of the participants at Thoughts from an Evil Overlord.

I belong to New England Bloggers because I am a proud native and lifelong Rhode Islander. In my 54 years I have lived in six houses but never more than 15 miles from the first. Paul and I have traveled to many parts of the world but this is home and it's always good to come back.

Rhode Island has many claims to fame. In elementary school everyone everywhere learned that we are the smallest state with the longest name: The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. We are also the yardstick used by national reporters to describe the enormity of something, such as "an iceberg the size of Rhode Island" or "a wildfire the size of Rhode Island...." You get the idea. It's nice to be mentioned but I wish we weren't always used to describe a disaster.

I may have misspoken when I said "everyone learned." As I mentioned, Paul and I have traveled quite a bit in the U.S. as well as overseas. Unfortunetly I have to say that people outside the U.S. often know where Rhode Island is but Americans, not so much. When asked where we're from, I have begun just saying New England. I got tired of being asked "isn't that an island off New York?" when I said Rhode Island. I guess geography isn't taught in school anymore.

Anyway, I am also a tenth generation of this region. My ancestors arrived in 1631 when it was then just called the New World. Because I couldn't narrow down what I wanted to say here, I decided do a photo essay.

Everyone has also heard about New England winters. Here's a story about a doozy. Back in mid-December 2008 Central Massachusetts experienced the worst ice storm it had seen in a decade. Damage was primarily the result of fallen trees and utility wires and poles, which were coated in a heavy layer of ice. A million people lost power and a state of emergency was declared in the state. Even in this day and age, Mother Nature proved she was in charge and many people were without power for up to two weeks.

The pictures below were taken by Carolyn, my friend and cousin-in-law, who lives in Oakham, a little town of about 1700 people. Taken on a sunny day one or two days after the storm, you can see the beauty and devastation Mother Nature wreaked on this rural area.






































































Hello everyone. I'm Carolyn who took the ice storm pictures. I was amazed that like snow flakes, each tree that was broken was in a different stance. Some of the sights at dusk looked like hooded monsters lurking in the woods and by each roadside! Our power was out for 7 days. "Magnificent Destruction." I took a total of 168 pictures! THAT'S why God created the digi-cam!!!

20 comments:

Michele said...

Oh my! The first one is lovely though the rest are beautiful in a devastating way. Thank your cousin in law for taking them.

Tinky said...

I love your history, Sandy, so thank you for sharing it! And thanks for reminding me of the beauty as well as the menace of that storm. Happy anniversary to us all......

Girl Tornado said...

Those pictures are amazing... the one of the little berries encased in ice is beautiful. We had a similar bad ice storm here last March, the day before April! And we are forecasted to get an ice storm/snowstorm by tomorrow afternoon. I've got my fingers crossed that it manages to miss us.

I've been cleaning up my blog roll lately and checking to be sure I'm a follower on the blogs I follow... whoops, I was NOT a follower here, so I've rectified that situation. :-)

Have a wonderful hump day!

Jo said...

Hi, Sandy, what pictures! I can only imagine what it did to the economy there. How devastating!

Dopey question alert: Has the wiring now gone underground?

10th generation is so impressive and indeed something to be proud of.

I would be happy as pie to live in such a lovely place my whole life and consider knowing my roots a true blessing as you clearly do.

Such history there.

Peace and serenity,
~Jo
'The End Of The Rainbow: Life After Bankruptcy'

What A Card said...

I remember that storm...so beautiful and so destructive. We were lucky not to have any long-term power loss. Some of my husband's co-workers in Northern Mass/Southern NH went over a week without power!

And where is Rhode Island again? (Just kidding ;)

Heather said...

How beautiful are the ice storm pics, especially the frozen berries. Thanks for sharing & happy belated SITS day as well as birthday!
-Heather @ www.savingmoneylivinglife.com

Heather said...
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Debby@Just Breathe said...

Happy Anniversary. The pictures are so beautiful. I think that an ice storm is always so pretty but the worst kind of storm you can have.

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Just thinking that this has been a busy week for you!

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

Sandy...This is a lovely tribute to RI. I'm loving reading all these New England posts. Thanks

Wanda..... said...

We had damage here in Ohio that winter too...electric for us was off a week...but we had a generator for the real necessities.

Dalia (Generation X Mom) said...

Beautiful pictures. I need to remember to take pictures in times like this. In an ice storm all I do is worry about the power being out, the food going bad, the basement flooding, etc. Next time I will stop and think about the beauty of it. Thanks!

Katherine said...

We moved to Iowa about six months ago and just experienced our first ice storm. Although a lot of trees were broken and many people without power, I was still impressed by just how beautiful everything was encased in ice.

And it's true that people in America don't seem to know their own geography. Many of our friends think we live in Ohio.

Unknown said...

A great post about your love of NE, and specifically RI. Did you read another NE bloggers post about being asked if RI was in New York?

Your friend's pictures are beautiful. They show the majesty and power of nature.

kayerj said...

oh my--I'd describe that as a terrible beauty!

pixielation said...

The iced berries photo is simply breathtaking!

I love the look of your whole site too, it's just rich and beautiful.

I dropped for your SITS day, but I'm always late!

Pam said...

Those ice storm photos are just gorgeous. I get the whole Rhode Island/Long Island thing all the time, too. I'm going to steal your idea and just say New England from now on.

edj3 said...

Last year, I moved to Boston from the Midwest where those ice storms are all too common alas. So I really felt for the folks affected by last year's storm. Beautiful, yes but very destructive.

Sultan said...

I lived in East Greenwich Rhode Island for a while in the early 1980s. I liked it and miss it some although it was pretty cold in the winter.

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