Tropical Storm Isaias
 

The NH State Police, Marine Patrol Unit wants to remind a New Hampshire shorefront property owner that now is the time to prepare for the possible impacts of Tropical Storm Isaias.

Current forecasts suggest that NH will likely experience impacts from Isaias Tuesday night and Wednesday. Heavy rain and high winds are likely and can pose unexpected consequences.

To insure the safety of you and your property, Marine Patrol urges people to consider the following:

Boats:

Secure your boats to docks and moorings with extra lines and be sure your boat has enough “slack” to ride large waves without jerking or snapping lines.

Automatic bilge pumps are often wired directly to your battery. Heavy rains often drain batteries of their power resulting in boats sinking at the dock. Please cover your boat with a mooring cover if one is available. Check your boat often!

Consider docking your boat with the bow facing the waves. Large waves hitting the stern of a docked boat can quickly fill the boat causing it to sink. Be sure you have adequate water depth beneath your boat during heavy wave conditions.

Mooring chains that have not been checked are often chafed close to the mooring anchor where they experience constant movement. Storms of this significance will easily break worn chains and mooring tackle resulting in boats being thrown against the shoreline.

Secure canoes, kayaks, paddle boards and rowboats. Simply pulling these smaller boats onto the beach is not enough! Remove them from the water and place them away from the beach where they can’t be reached by high tides or lake waves.

Personal Safety and Emergency Response:

Remember, when storms are severe enough on NH’s lakes and seacoast, access to docks and shorefront property can be delayed or in some cases, impossible. If you have a medical history that might require the services of emergency responders, consider a stay on the mainland during the storm.

Be sure to have a supply of medications and provisions in the event of a power outage or access to the mainland is cut-off for the duration of the storm.

Please know that the priority for Marine Patrol and other Emergency Services during these types of weather events is life-safety. We will not be able to assist with drifting boats, boats on the rocks, or non-emergency transportation of persons to/from islands when conditions jeopardize the safety of our personnel or equipment.

In the event of an emergency, Marine Patrol can be reached by calling 9-1-1.

Isaias winds
 

The long range forecast I have seen that winds will be SW 233 degrees with gusts at 40MPH. Most people have their docks and moorings set for winds coming out of the N/NW. Winds coming out of the SSW could expose those that have open water from the S/SW. Rain amounts are being reported 3-4". This seems to happen at Tuesday night which makes it more difficult to be able to see and tell what is happening on the waterfront.

Take precautions as the MP suggest.

Be safe.....

No Trailer?
 

Canoes, kayaks and rowboats which have no trailers can benefit from a Florida hurricane trick—which is to partially fill the boat with water. This weighs the boat against blowing away. Even trailered boats can benefit, should local winds be stronger than predicted.

Heavy rains could add too much water, so positioning the boat (or transom drain) to allow overflowing will prevent possible structural damage.

We headed up to the island tonight to turn our boats bow out and add more lines. If it does come out of the east or north east we could get clobbered, so we weren’t taking chances.

Oops
 

Hate it when the picture looks great except when it gets posted here. Happens more times than I care to remember and admit.

On a positive note, looks like no matter how much rain we get, it will run right out of your boat. (Nice boat, btw.)

Dave

Wait, did the storm already go by?

It looks like it flipped those boats! :)

If these boats were docked at a South Pole lakehouse, I could understand this perspective .

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It’s an iPhone thing.... couldn’t fix it on a mobile device.
I was fully expecting the commentary though!

Keys to Flip Over...
 

My laptop will flip the image [upright] using three keys at the same time:
H, Shift, and Ctrl.

Supposed to be bow towards the waves not keel towards the sky :D

It's not just this site:

https://www.howtogeek.com/254830/why...ectly-rotated/

(I rotated Codeman's picture)

Bad choice of words
 

Webmaster, bad choice of words on my part. This is the only forum I post on, and when posting from a mobile device, sometimes the pictures stand on its side or on its head, but not all the time. Didn't mean to imply it was this site's problem. Sorry.

Interesting link, even if it is over my head. :confused: :D

Dave

It's what we do....[emoji6]

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Looking at my radar app, it appears the majority of the storm is heading west of of us. Looks like we will barely get hit...

Dan

I've been watching the radar all day and there's been barely a blip at Arcadia. In fact, the first rain just started a few minutes ago.

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Same here on Welch. Wind out of the southeast, I’m on leeward side so all calm here. Just started to rain...

Dan

When I saw that this morning I thought "Don will fix that picture" but I didn't want to assume anything. What a great Webmaster!!

Getting hit pretty hard now. I just came back from dinner at the Bob House, where the lights were flickering the whole time I enjoyed my BBQ flatbread and sweet Thai chili wings!

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Same here
 

Branches coming down, lots of white water but we still have power here on Spindle Point. Beautiful view looking south right now. White and gray clouds and large blue sky openings with sun. Very unusual.

Power on Long Island but Spectrum cable went down....but heck that happens even without a Tropical Storm!


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Strong SE Winds in Wolfeboro...
 

If anyone is missing any "water toys", they'll be found on Moultonborough shorelines! :eek2:

We just had a 45 mph wind gust here on Welch. Not much rain at all just wind...

Power just went out on Welch....

Dan

Storm and Power Outage
 

Anybody else lose power on Bear just now?

I never made it up this past weekend and when I left Meredith a week ago I left all the water toys, not in the water but out at the shore, Kayaks, paddle board, all the paddles, and water floats.
I would expect the water floats to be long gone. :(

Nhec
 

At 815pm,NHEC is experiencing over 29,000 outages or just over 1/3 of their coverage.
Lakes Region mutual Fire has 60 open calls right now, mainly trees and or wires down.

Dave

On/Off power outage here. Multiple times.

Got my computer backup battery/surge protector.

LINK

We still have power but spent quite a while today turning boats bow out and securing with extra lines but we're getting smashed hard here in Moultonborough facing south. I did everything I could but have finally given up and decided I may have to give Flo a call tomorrow.

Power is out on the NE side of the island. Have heard a lot of trees coming down in the woods out back. Been a bit of a wild afternoon.

And Eversource has 80,000 out in NH

Very rough
 

Lake was as rough as I have ever seen it. Wave after wave coming over the top of the dock. Spent a couple of hours on the dock securing ropes on boats and replacing broken ones.. It would calm down for a few minutes and then the wind would kick back up and start the whole thing again

Same here on the north end of Winnisquam. Two lines per plus whips. Boat is rocking and pushing forward. Hopefully everything holds till morning


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We got crushed on East Bear. The dock pic from yesterday looks a lot different now. I checked my cameras at 5:30pm and saw it crumbling with our boats on it. Mad rush up to Gilford and a nasty ride out to Bear. I was expecting both boats to be a total loss by the time we got there.
The Yamaha seemed to be fine and the dock crumbled right behind me as I pulled out. Went back for the Eastern and barely got that off. Some gel oat damage but it could have been worse.
Dock is a total loss.

Here are some probably upside down pics:

Sorry to hear that Codeman....hopefully your boat damage is minimal.

My Eastern got swamped at my dock also at around 11:00 PM. The storm was well Northwest of us by that time but the wind picked up and we ended up with some massive waves. Took one over the stern and she got swamped. Luckily I was there and with the help of some wonderful island neighbors we saved the main brand new motor from going under...the 9.9 kicker wasn’t so lucky! Just finished pumping her out. Will pull her out in a few hours to inspect hull for damage...

Dan

Storm and Power
 

Anybody on West Bear have power?

Wow! Sorry to hear Dan! From a “seemingly” uneventful storm there sure is a lot of damage and outages out there! Glad you saved the new motor! Good luck the rest of the way!

Man oh man...glad you were able to save the boats! Best of luck with the dock...that was brutal, no doubt!

Those are crazy pictures...amazing that the boats survived!

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It was nuts. It was all Kathy, Sherry and I could do to even secure the Yamaha to the mail dock. Mike was circling in his boat. Lake Life is going to look at the dock today to see what is left and will try to rebuild it.

Good luck with the damage Codeman and iShoot—I hope they turn out to be quick and easy. Like my dad used to say, though: "you can fix metal, but you can't fix flesh." Glad you're all safe.

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I'm sorry to see such boat and dock carnage.

The insurance should help but the downtime and aggravation makes it worse.

The already busy dock and fiberglass repair folks will be slammed from this event.

But as others have said, nobody got hurt.

There were boats and docks before and there will be boats and docks again.

Good luck to all
 

I flew out of MHT yesterday afternoon for NC, must have lucked into a weather window. I thought for sure they would cancel the flight.

This is the first time I am glad my boat was out of the water getting repaired!

Hope everyone's cleanup goes well, be safe!

Lucky you were there! We put our Eastern on the trailer last night around 9pm to get it out of harms way.

Bear Power
 

There's a tree on the lines behind 315 Bear, according to our neighbor at 321 Bear. Called the outage line for Nh electric, and Sharon said she's made a note of it for the crew. The downed tree caused power outages at camps from 315 Bear north along the shore.

Gas Available?
 

Can anyone report if Shep's or Y Landing is pumping gas? Need fuel for possible extended generator use...

storm
 

Tried to call SB, got nothing but busy signal. 1 pm

storm
 

Y landing has phone issues as well. Not a good sign

Gas Available?
 

My son was at Brown's this morning.

Their power was out, so couldn't pump gas. He was told power was out all along the Neck, so that doesn't bode well for Y Landing either.

codeman, thanks for sharing your story. Glad you where able to get up there start rescuing your boats. Hopefully a temporary repair can be made to the dock to get you back in business quick....

We took the Eastern back into Fay's for the storm, lucky we did. Our dock is two to the south from Dan's and more exposed to the wind. Talked to Dan in person this morning while he was still cleaning up his Eastern. He was real lucky to have island neighbors come over to help bail the boat.

The power is still off on the north side of Welch. Prior to losing power our weather station showed 45 mph like Dan's. That was SE wind wrapping around to the west side of Walch. No idea what it was when it shifted around to the SW.

Alan

NHEC Outages
 

Just got an email from NHEC reporting that 37,000 of their customers, or about 40%, are without power. I'm thinking that for some of those customers, power will be out for at least a few days.

I am completely blown away. My dock was wrecked last night, but by 1:30pm Lake Life Services already had it pulled apart put back together! Talk about service!

A friend in need is a friend indeed...

Damage
 

Here’s a pic of my brother in laws pontoon barge that got hell beat out of it in the storm. As you can see, the dock line even with snubbers ripped the entire back cap off the pontoon where it attaches. That’s the back cap in the second picture. After the boat broke free it hit their new Bennington Q series pontoon that I just sold them a month ago. Damaged the entire side of one toon. They are on the east side of Lockes island.

Descant note....even with the entire back cap ripped off, the pontoon remained afloat and I was able to tow it to shore. Only the back compartment was compromised...

Dan

Cody is great! I have used him for some barge service. Very fair and keeps in touch!

Dan

I have never seen that happen!

Very sorry to see that. They are such nice hardworking people.

Alan

So very sorry you guys got hit so hard. And I am upset about branches all over the place. I will say no more!

Dan, was the dock line connected to the back cap and you think the edge got bashed enough for the cap to pull off?

I'm asking because I put an extra line from my rear cap to the dock. I keep it loose as it's there only if another line fails. From the photo my neighbor sent I think it helped me because the post with the line that prevents the boat going forward tilted quite a bit. ( I have whips and snubbers for lateral movement and hard line for forward / backward movement. I may try snubbers on the hard lines.

Do people think that having a boat on a mooring vs dock would fair better, I was lucky, I had my tritoon pulled out monday for repairs, otherwise it would have been on my mooring.

Dock dependent. Permanent docks with whips work. Seasonal docks, can’t see it working with yesterday’s storm. Will be investing in a lift this off season if I can determine a way to remove it at season’s end


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I had a tree come down on my camp late yesterday afternoon, a very good sized and healthy maple, got completely uprooted. Thankfully after spending the day carefully removing it from the roof damage was not to bad.

I've seen some pretty nasty storms up here but nothing quite as bad as yesterday.

Still no power - part of Meredith Neck Rd is closed and there is a re-route to get around what I would assume is more downed trees. Power guys are going to be busy for a while.

No Question...
 

Moorings are absolutely better.

Bear Power
 

Outage map shows 149 outages on Bear now. As usual, mainland customers do seem to get served first.

Yes on that particular pontoon the tie off is on the back cap. He had four way tied with snubbers as well as but it was just too much. Even the front tie offS which are welded to the front of the pontoon both broke off! The wind was just brutal and his breakwater kind of locks the waves in and really makes things worse under certain wind conditions. Once that boat broke free it really took its toll on his very nice Bennington Tri-toon. Both side pontoons are basically destroyed, still useable but destroyed!

Dan

Yeah, I'm no welder but that isn't right. The rope should have snapped long before the weld let go (unless it was Dyneema). Especially the way the entire cap peeled clean off. Maybe "Joe the new guy" was running the welder that day. Maybe the surfaces weren't prepared properly or corrosion got into the weld. It certainly wouldn't hurt to show Sylvan. They claim a "Limited Lifetime Warranty" on the hull and structure (whatever that means). Maybe get it repaired for free.

Mark

Bear Power
 

There is a tree on the line in back of 315 Bear Island. Power is out from there north through the mail dock, probably all over Bear.

I've heard that a crew may be headed out here today. We shall see, I have yet to see anyone walking the powerlines yet.

There are still a lot of scattered outages so hard to say who will be next on the restoration list.

Bear Power
 

As usual, crews seem to service mainland first. Outage map, tho not always updated, shows 156 outages at Cattle, 149 on Bear, but I bet there's more than that.

Welch should be back on as of about 1330!

Power is back on on the NE side of Bear

Not sure if anyone follows any of the happenings on Sebago, but if anyone has facebook check out the carnage up there. Boats on moorings did NOT fare well, there are probably a dozen that ended up either on the beach or on rocks mostly destroyed. Really sad for a lot of people. Glad to hear everyone is safe though.

Bear Power
 

Power restored to our cove on west Bear, behind Shepard Island

injecting a little levity

Charge It, Please
 

Has power been restored to East Bear Island yet?

Atlantic Broadband on Bear?
 

Anyone know the status of internet on Bear? I can’t reach anyone there to get a status report.

I’m glad to hear that some islanders are getting restored, you must have a different service provider. (Eversource?) No sense of urgency from NHEC for the Tuftonboro islands, no trucks insight anywhere, website is beyond useless for outage information other than that they exist. They’ll gladly charge us close to $30 bucks a month for the privilege of having their meter on the backs of or camps though. Even in the winter when we’re not here.

Rant off, we’re here now and the generator is running. Internet is working, cocktail is tasty so on with more positive endeavors.

The news clip I watched was a bunch of pontoons moored in shallow water with mushroom type anchors / moorings. The waves lifted the boats enough to move the mooring. I know mine would not have budged. 2000lbs of block, Stainless chain with lots of scope but I'm on the broads where 4' waves come multiple times a year.

NH Electric Coop SUCKS!
 

Still no power on Little Bear 3 days after the storm. I heard that a tree took the power line down over on Cow, which is what caused this outage. NHEC is a completely useless, corrupt organization, that’s not even regulated by NH Public Utilities Commission. If only we had a choice, and they didn’t have a monopoly.

I'm asking not to be a nudge but to know: what makes you define NHEC as corrupt? I mean, there are many people still out of power, and island properties would be expected to come last, no?

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Why should islands be last? Island properties pay the same “member fee” and the same rates as mainland properties. If island properties are last on the list, then rates for these properties should be reduced. I can understand if it’s mid-winter, or if ice conditions are unsafe. But we’re talking the first week of August with 2 days of nice weather after this storm. NHEC has their own boat, so why can’t they send a crew out to fix this problem? Islanders have refrigerators and freezers full of food and ice, just like mainlanders, and also need electricity to operate water pumps and septic systems. I don’t have time to elaborate on their corruption right now.

Why would Islands be last? I guess for the same reason houses further in the woods or at the ends of lines would come last: access and number of customers.

Historically, have islands been restored simultaneously? I mean, is there a precedent?



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Power Up?
 

Any information about the status of power on East Bear Island this Friday morning? 🐻

Ummm...
 

Historically, islands never had power. ;)

Power is on at Bear. Given the number of outages, I think they did a pretty good job to get it restored as quickly as they did - no complaints from me. With Atlantic Broadband, on the other hand, I have been struggling to get accurate information.

is the power on the mainland that service the lines going to the islands up and running? if not how can they restore power to the islands any quicker. Even customers on the mainland that are at the ends of the service runs can't come back till the the lines that feed them are restored. They can't start at the far end till the service is restored getting to that point. Having worked storm damage to restore power during winter it's no fun, imagine after working multiple days and finally getting to some of the seasonal areas that are usually unoccupied in winter and after having the town plow the road so the crews could get in, have 2 familys drive out, no one knew they were in there.

Their outage map shows no outages on the mainland in Tuftonboro. It also shows 193 outages in Tuftonboro, which I believe would be right around the number out houses on the Tuftonboro islands served by NHEC.

I guess Big Bear comes before Little Bear! Glad to hear you’re restored.

Yes, islands are usually restored last...

Dan

Trust me, there’s power all the way down to Harilla Landing and there has been all along. They never lost power. Looking at their “map” again this morning, Tuftonboro has the highest percentage of outages by members served and yet none of them are on the mainland. Also as Little Bear pointed out, it August and the weather is perfect, hardly a comparison to a mid winter or ice storm situation. This storm was forecast days in advance so there was ample time for NHEC to prepare and line up back up crews as other utilities do.


I entered a comment on the lack of response on their website last night for all the good it will do. No sign of any NHEC crews at the landing as 8:00 this morning, good thing we have plenty of gas for the generator.

Only part of Bear is on, we are still out.

Why do you think islands should be more important?

My father spent a lot of time working with power companies over his career. They have plans for how to deal with storm response. Plans which by the way are supposed to be available to the public. This plans describe the priority of response to various areas if the grid. Islands are likely at the bottom of that list for good reason:

1. Are there emergency or medical services housed on the islands? (i.e. hospitals, Dr. Offices, Police Stations, fire departments)
2. Are The residents with serious medical conditions, needing electricity to treat on the islands?
3. What is the down time for a crew traveling to and from the island?
4. How much information do they have regarding specifically what the issue is on the island?

#4 here is a big one, does someone on little bear know where the fuse is blown or line down? if so have the called that information in, or even better sent pictures to NHEC?

NHEC is very well run and manged, they do a tremendous job.... If you want to talk about power company corruption why don't you look into a company called Unitil...........

Having friends on various islands I can tell you islands are always last on the list. The ones that seem to get the fastest service, are the places where the residents get involved and get information to the power company....

Thanks for the update. Hope it’s restored soon!

As an islander, one has to be willing to accept the fact that there are different logistics involved with providing services to areas that are difficult to get to. While we all pay the same for using these services and for the fees necessary to maintain the infrastructure, expectations as to when restoration can be expected should consider where you are. Bottom line it is not up to the NHEC to come to everyone's rescue immediately following a storm, rather everyone should be adequately prepared for these situations. Having a generator is not a significant investment to run the basics and frankly was the first thing I did to my place assuming being on an island service restorations may be slow.

For the most part I think that the NHEC does a pretty good job at responding, and I don't think considering the damage to the infrastructure the response time has been inadequate.

FURTHERMORE keep in mind these guys have to abide by the ridiculous COVID19 restrictions which is slowing their progress. Makes it a little tough to get a job done when you're stuck having to play the social distancing, no large groups of people in one place and mask wearing game.

Think a little gratitude goes a long way for these line workers who are working 24X7 to restore power as quickly as they can.

Do you know why NHEC is not regulated by the NH Public Utilities Commission?

If they are not regulated then who oversees their activities? Who do they report to?

Well said - thank you

I suspect priority is given to getting the most people turned on sooner and the fewer number of people later. And that would probably include larger islands getting priority over smaller islands.

The coop is owned by it's members.
https://www.nhec.com/

We have NHEC at home in West Alton and have always had good service.

ABB shows on their outage page no outages in Meredith. I did attempt to get in touch with them but no luck just an answering machine. I imagine at this point they have no ETA.

Here's the deal with them, they cannot restore service till power is available as the signal requires powered amplifiers on the poles themselves. Although the power grid may be segmented and redundant the same may not be true of the broadband infrastructure. I would not expect that broadband will return to service until the majority of the power is restored, only then can they hit the poles and fix any damage done to their stuff.

The members.

This is why the "members" are given the chance to vote on various projects and leadership. Similar to a credit union vs a regular bank.

I doubt as a private entity they are governed by the NHPUC, however I can't say that for sure.

How are you coming to the conclusion that NHEC is not regulated by the NH PUC?


Because the islands are typically at the end of the service line.