Residents Make the Most of Outage Situation

Peter McLachlan sat on a lawn chair with a cracker in his hand and the rest of his dinner on a small folding table next to him. The 73-year-old Schoolhouse Hill Road resident looked perfectly comfortable, soaking in the scenery that surrounded him as he sat, not in his darkened kitchen, but in his driveway where there was still light.

No, McLachlan said, the very large tree that blocked access to his road a few yards away wasn’t bothering him at all, nor did the lack of electricity since Tropical Storm Irene hit on Sunday grate on him. But don't get him wrong, he said.

“I’ll be glad when it’s over,” McLachlan said of the power outage. “Right now, I’m just taking advantage of it.”

About the only inconvenience he could not get over was having to take cold showers, an experience that brought back memories of when he served in the Army and cold water was all that was available.

“I’ll never get used to it,” McLachlan said.

All across town, residents were trying to cope the best they could with the storm Monday, but it wasn’t easy for many, who had to find shortcuts from their homes in order to get out, or the others who started the cleanup process while still others who went searching for Internet access.

Dianna Medwid and her husband braved sounds of branches crackling and falling all around their home on Oakview Road Sunday, and when it became safe to go outside, she hiked and then later drove down a nature trail in order to have access to essentials, such as showers at Reed Intermediate School on Monday.

“It’s more traumatic than we thought,” she said of the storm, adding it brought back memories of a devastating storm from her childhood in 1955. “This was the biggest storm since.”

The days blended together and she was having some difficulties adjusting, and keeping track of time, Medwid said.

“It’s disorienting,” she said.

Meanwhile, Guy Peterson and his 13-year-old son, Devin, used Monday to make dump runs to clear the large tree that fell on his yard on Sunday.

“I watched this tree fall at 6:15 a.m.,” he said.

The two borrowed a retractable dump truck from a friend and were expecting to make three runs to clear the debris.

“Our neighbors helped,” Devin Peterson said.

While affected residents struggled with their situation, others tried to help out, including Doug Masek, the owner at Hideaway Cafe, one of the fewer operating coffee shops in town with free wireless Internet access.

Lillian Bittman, who serves on the town's Board of Education, said she arrived to the shop early on Monday in order to get Internet access, which was out at her house.

"I walked in to see the owner filling people's containers with milk, filling their coolers with ice, and insisting that he brew fresh pots for those with coffee carafes, like me!" she said in an e-mail. "This place is packed, and the owner is doing everything he can to keep everyone happy. I think it's his community spirit that has moved me the most."