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Beautiful light

I have always liked sleeping in, but since it was “dark under the table” early with no electricity, it was early to bed and early to rise. I would get up in the wee hours of the morning and wander around my parents’ yard (my son and I spent the week there – they had a wood stove and a Coleman cook top).

I wandered around the yard taking pictures of the trees and ice; the light was beautiful. I got some of the best shots I’ve ever taken. My favorite: A Bangor Hydro truck driving by on the road, the truck framed by the ice-laden trees in the shot.

It was a perfect editorial for the week.

Lisa M. Gordon

Ellsworth

Majestic miracle

I have an amazing story to tell about the ice storm.

My husband and I had decided to drive to our parents’ house to check on them because the phone lines were down and there was also no electricity. I believe this was in the first two days of precipitation, so we were driving in sleet and freezing rain. It was dark, and there were no other cars in sight, so the evening took on an almost unearthly appearance with the headlights shining off ice-glazed trees and snow-covered fields.

Just then, we spotted something in the sky right in front of us. It happened so quickly that we had no time to react. My husband charged on the brakes to avoid the flying object but it was too late. Smack. We had just struck a snowy white owl.

The truck slid sideways in the sugarlike snow, and I grasped the door. The truck slowed to a stop in the middle of the road. We were shaken but otherwise all right.

The windshield was miraculously intact, and our seat belts had kept us from jolting forward into the dash. My husband rolled down the window, and looked behind us.

In the eerie red light cast by our taillights we could make out the outline of a magnificent white owl. It appeared to be dead, lying on its side in the middle of the crystallized street.

My heart sank. Could we have just killed such a spectacular animal?

My husband left the truck running (there was no one for miles) and crept toward the animal. I, too, left the truck to get an up-close look at the creature.

Suddenly, and quite abruptly, there was a flurry of motion. White downy wings outstretched, the owl took flight right before us! It was beautiful and majestic as it swooped gracefully over our heads, and into the glistening crisp night. A sight that will forever remain in our memories, and a magical moment that would not have been possible had it not been for the situation brought on by that stormy event of 1998.

Bridgit Cayer

Bangor Daily News

Cold-blooded animals

I am a retired schoolteacher living in Florida after spending 30-plus winters in Maine, the last of which was 1998. I was an avid snowmobiler and spent countless hours during the winter months around the basketball courts doing everything from presiding over the Hampden youth basketball program, coaching middle school girls teams, to just being a spectator at many high school contests. For the most part, winter was an enjoyable experience, until …

My ice storm story involves a few animals of the cold-blooded type that I was keeping at the time. Reptiles, as we all know, need to be kept in a warm environment. I had several enclosures complete with lamps and other forms of heating for these critters, but when the power was gone, I had a big problem.

Lucky for me (and the snakes), one room at the end of the house had a wood stove and also a pool table in the middle of it. The largest of the animals – two boas and a good-sized python – spent the better part of two days camped out on the table while I continued to feed the fire and try to catch a nap or two in the only chair in the room. The snakes and I survived fine. However, when a friend of mine came knocking on the door one day and saw a huge python staring back at him from inside, wow! I think that poor guy is still running!

I was one of the fortunate ones who only lost power for a couple of days. I believe school was out for nine days. That was quite a storm; I have since moved on to other endeavors. No need to keep reptiles here. I have plenty of cute little lizards crawling all over the deck and maybe a snake or gator or two lurking in and around the canal. They can stay there.

Bill Eck

Formerly of Hampden

Good food, good memories

My best memories of the ice storm were two things: baking beans and hot dogs on our barbecue grill, which was covered in ice but still worked and gave us a hot meal. We then huddled together in our apartment, my wife and I, for the three days we were able to live without heat or power.

The second memory was that of driving down Ohio Street with the sun illuminating all of the trees and telephone poles bent down to the ground. It was like driving in a tunnel of ice. Scary to realize the massive destruction around us, but all the same unforgettably beautiful to look at. At the time I was driving our old 1988 Celebrity station wagon, which started and ran when all my neighbors’ and my other car failed to even start, due to all of the ice buildup. Testimonial to a great American car.

I felt very fortunate that we were able to get a room at Bangor Motor Inn and within walking distance of where I worked.

Ken Bouchard

Holden, formerly Bangor

The little things in life

How ironic! We were just talking about this and how we survived. I think this was brought to mind by the ice storm that people are experiencing in another state right now. We tend to take focus when we have gone through this ourselves and say … “I know what that feels like.”

We own a driving-school business in Augusta, and last evening we mentioned to one of our students as he was waiting for a ride home, “Did you remember the ice storm?” He said, “Oh yes, and I was about 5 years old.” I knew this because I have a daughter who is now 15 and experienced the ice storm at 5.

We were without power for around eight days. We chose to stay at our home.

At night, we would bundle the kids up real good. My husband would sleep in our room upstairs, and he made a place for the kids and me to sleep in the living room with a heater donated to us by The Salvation Army. We had to keep a crack in the window to keep it vented.

I actually cooked a fish chowder on the little stove that got hot at the top. We would spend our time listening to the radio that a neighbor let us borrow. This was very exciting – to listen to others on the radio share their experiences and what they were going through. The radio was all we had.

At the end of the ice storm, I had each of my children – Brenwin, 12, Tara, 9, and Jalee, 5 – write down on a piece of paper what their thoughts were. I have these tucked away somewhere in a safe place. We remember the ice branches and the ice-falling noises in the night and how very cold we were and how good our food tasted.

Yes, this was an event that will stay with all of us forever, no matter what the age. I feel that this event changed people in a special way and made us appreciate the little things in life.

This was nice to talk about and I feel a lot of people feel the same. When you mention “ice storm,” people tend to light up and have a story they want to share.

Tina Soucie

Road trip

I remember because our daughter had made the All State Jazz Choir that was to be held in South Portland on that Saturday. Because the school department had heard there was a storm coming, they let the students leave at 9 a.m. from Caribou for Portland.

Kristina called 11 hours later! She said they traveled about 40 miles per hour till they got there! The roads were terrible – no one said a word. The ice was horrible.

Some of the areas had no electricity while others did. The All State Jazz Festival was held – people showed up – maybe because there were lights and warmth. My sister and brother-in-law lived in Oxford where they didn’t have school for almost two weeks. They were better off than others because they heat with wood and have gas lights. Many of their friends came and spent time with them. I can remember traveling downstate in April and seeing all of those beautiful birch trees bent almost to the ground – beautiful but so sad.

I was truly glad to live in Aroostook County where all we had was snow!

Debbie Blanchette

Ice storm beacon

At the time of the ice storm, I was the owner of Dunn’s Recreational Center located in Orono. We were the local Suzuki and Arctic Cat dealer located off Exit 51.

We were hit hard by the ice storm, losing power at our home and business in Orono. At the time we were concerned about how to get by, but soon figured out that we were OK and that business had to continue as usual even without power. We stopped all work and focused only on commercial and local government work that related to helping people in need due to the ice storm.

One day I was listening to WVOM, “the Voice of Maine,” one of the only stations still on the air. They sent out a message that they were running on generators from their transmitter located on Passadumkeag Mountain and that they were running out of propane and needed help.

I picked up the phone and called and donated our work, snowmobiles and labor. At first, they thought that I was trying to sell our products, not giving our time. After a few moments talking with Thomas Morelli, he realized that we wanted to help.

In a few days, we loaded up our equipment and headed toward their tower on Passadumkeag Mountain. We worked from sunup to sundown with about a dozen other people, some workers and some volunteers. We all pitched in and hauled propane tanks up the mountain that we knew very well from our local snowmobile rides.

When we got to the top, it was a miracle that the tower was still standing. It was totally engulfed in thick ice covering the structure and guy wires. The tower was swaying and creaking in the wind. We all looked in amazement that it didn’t topple over.

A maintenance man climbed the tower and started to hit the tower frame with a wrench to remove the ice, then a large section of ice came crashing to the ground from one of the guy wires.

I thought for sure the tower was coming down as it swayed wildly from side to side. After a breathtaking moment, we got back to work hauling tanks up the mountain. It was a long ride one way to get to the staging area. Each trip that we made, it became harder and harder to get up the mountain as the trail was getting mealy and the snowmobiles had to work harder to gain traction, the engines overheating and the exhaust systems glowing red.

But by sundown, we had finished our task of resupplying the fuel to keep WVOM on the air for a few more days. This was a high point to think that we helped to keep a vital emergency system up and running during a tough and trying time. But as always, the people of Maine all pulled together and proved that we can do anything when needed.

The state of Maine is truly a special place to live and I would jump to help again if needed.

Aaron Dunn, Poland

Greener grass?

I remember very well the Ice Storm of ’98. I was living in Hudson, and my husband was working in Pennsylvania, soon to be promoted to a job in Georgia by his office. I hadn’t yet quit my job or sold our house. The power was out for several days – I toted water from my parents’ home in Argyle, put food in the snowbanks to keep it from spoiling, and carefully used a space heater for warmth, cursing the decision not to install a wood stove in the house, but thankful that my kitchen stove operated on gas and not electricity. My two dogs, six cats and I managed, though the human among us was less than cheerful at times.

The ice did make the outdoors seem almost a magical place, with crystal glistening beautifully from every tree branch, utility line and bird feeder. After the fifth or sixth day without power, the wonder of it all seemed to fade quite a bit, though.

I was so impressed with how communities came together to help those who were without power for several days. People offered rooms in their own homes to strangers, as well as offering food, water and pet care to those in need.

I recall thinking how I’d miss my home state, but how great it was going to be, living in Georgia where it never got cold. WRONG! We moved to Atlanta in March of that same year. In 2000, a big ice storm toppled two trees in our backyard. One crashed through our newly installed privacy fence and another landed on the roof of our house. The grass isn’t always greener (or warmer) on the other side of the fence.

At least our utility lines are underground so we didn’t suffer any power outages, though. It’s a good thing, because anyone who’d offer a room in their home to a stranger here has a death wish. Maine’s much more “the way life should be” in many ways, in spite of the too-long winters.

Cheryl L. Rankin

Atlanta, Ga.

Air Force heroes

My children were all 6 and under when the ice storm happened. One of my fondest memories is for the first two days we were playing board games and then we turned the apartment into a fort.

When we had to go to the base, the people were so great! My son Bryan was only 3 and the men in the Air Force were so great with him. They took him to look at the planes and told him what it was like to be in the Air Force. He is now in the sixth grade and counting down the time until he can join the Air Force! They made such a big impression on him with their kindness!

Tina Johnson

One family’s loss

The Ice Storm of 1998 holds darker than normal memories for one Hanscom family from Orrington. This was the time that my father, Roland Hanscom, passed away after a long and courageous battle with cancer. While thousands of Maine families struggled with the wrath of Mother Nature that January, we endured the added burden of knowing our father’s life was nearing its end. My mom, two brothers and their wives, niece, along with my wife, son and I, hunkered down in the family home on the Dow Road for numerous days and nights to offer love and care for our ailing father.

With the constant sound of crackling trees succumbing under the weight of the mounting ice, we maintained the vigil of keeping the house warm with a generator provided by my Uncle Harry who lived just up the road. I remember seeing my uncle walk up and down the road in front of the house, feeling helpless as his older brother carried on the good fight. Memories of close friends finding their way to our house to share a few last moments with Dad; my grandmother experiencing her own grief of watching her son slip away; my mother, by my father’s side, sharing a quiet talk at 3 in the morning; or our Lab retriever nuzzling Dad’s hand and the acknowledgement on his face, all come flooding back as I reflect upon those trying days. My dad passed away the evening of Jan. 12, at the height of the ice storm, with his loving family surrounding him.

Ken Hanscom, Orono

Dogs, cats, birds and people

I’ll never forget it, and I still have my T-shirt, coffee cup, movies and photos for memories.

The lights flickered and then went out and didn’t come back on for days. My husband and I lived in a mobile home, shared with my son and our two parakeets. We were lucky because we had a generator and plenty of gas.

Not so lucky were my daughter next door, my 4-year-old granddaughter, their dog, and Leo, their cat. On the other side of me was my friend Gerri, who had a dog, a cat and a big bird named Sweetie. Gerri was reluctant to come at first but got cold and came with dog, cat and Sweetie the bird with her cage all covered up in a blanket.

So there we were: two dogs, two cats, three birds, a 4-year-old and five adults. We had plenty of food to put us all through that dark week. My husband and I had one bedroom, my son had the other one, and I had two recliners, my couch, a cot and plenty of blankets. We ate, sang, laughed, slept and listened to Q103.9. And every once in a while, Sweetie would call out “Gerri.”

And thank God for Q103.9. We listened to updates and heard stories of how people were helping people. It really warmed our hearts to hear how hard they were trying to help anyone and everyone they could and were giving it their all.

Gail McCafferty

Bangor