Learning The Hard Way - Winter In New England

01 February 2026

1149

R. Linda:

Looks pretty . . . but

The heavy snows of a New England winter can be tough to live through. If you don't have a fireplace (which is rather unheard of in New England homes), and you don't have a generator, you are truly roughing it. 

This problem of having nothing to keep your home functioning happens mostly to the New England transplant from another state. Yes, indeed, R. Linda, they expect the nor'easters, the blizzards, but they don't think ahead on how to live through that sort of thing.

I got a heavy dose of it when I moved up here. I had no power for almost five weeks, and I had to keep warm by camping out in front of the fireplace. I used a handheld blowtorch to keep me water pipes from freezing while I froze doing it. There were no places open for food, petrol, or snow shovels, because no one had electricity. It was rough, cold, and hunger can be a bitch.

There were times I looked at our parakeet nestled in his feathers next to the fireplace and thought about roasting him. But I'd never hear the end of that. And he would have been but a mouthful. Sigh.

I remedied the problem by paying through the nose for a full-house generator, so I would never have to go through that again. So, it pains me when I hear of a new transplanted family finding all this out the hard way. Take the newbies in town. They are from South Carolina; he came up here for a better job in Boston, moved to New Hampshire because it has no income tax, and getting to Boston is a breeze. The family has six members: the youngest, 14, and two older teenage sons and a teenage daughter with a mouth on her. 

Well, the big storm came in, as you know, and the family went out and bought food and shovels, thinking they were all set. The local news had shown residents running out to buy food off supermarket shelves and at the hardware store, piling up salt and shovels. They did all that by paying attention. The local news also gave a warning about petrol-powered generators and space heaters. So they knew about that, but didn't buy a generator, thinking they didn't need one. They did buy a small space heater, not sure they'd need that either, but they'd have it just in case.

The power went out, so the plug-in space heater would be of no use. The home they bought was new construction and didn't have the usual fireplace or woodstove, so as far as heat went, it was gone with the electricity. This situation also turned off the refrigerator, so any meats or dairy would become useless if not consumed within the first day or so. Of course, there was no cooking meat because the stove was ... you guessed it, electric!

Knowing no one, they had no place to go. SO, they got knit hats, heavy jackets, gloves, blankets and pillows from their beds and made a circle in the den, their bodies close together for warmth. Well, it was uncomfortable to say the least, but they had cards and games they were able to play to while away the hours before the electricity was returned, only that didn't happen as soon as they hoped. They also had to put up with a daughter who had no phone service (battery dead) and was, upset to say the least. Can you imagine listening to a complainer all day and all night, and not being able to get away? To add insult to injury, a day of bitter cold came and went, with the promise of even colder temperatures the next day. 

It was a bone-chilling night, but the problem was compounded when the pipes burst, and water poured through the ceiling onto sleepy, cold heads. But this wasn't the end of it. No, no, by no means does this awfulness end, it continued.

Finding a local shelter, the family moved there while the husband went back to the house to get a few things they needed. While at the shelter, the husband had watched local news reports about heavy snow on roofs causing them to collapse and ice dams that were preventing melting snow from draining properly, instead draining behind the walls of the house, ruining walls, insulation and floors. In other words, it ruins the home and becomes an expensive fix. That was all he needed on top of everything else. So while he was there, he just happened to have a trusty blowtorch on hand, and well, he tried to melt the ice dams, only to set the house on fire.

The fire department had a heck of a time trying to quell the blaze, and it took half the house. So much for bright ideas. I suppose their plan to move back to South Carolina was nixed when the snowbomb hit there yesterday. They'd be in the same predicament as they are here. From one big lesson learner to another learning the same lesson, only a worse way of learning it, all I can say is, welcome to winter in New England!

Gabe

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