living in New England, I have also never heard of this and I don't think it's understandable at all. Trees are pruned around power lines for a reason.

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ghaff 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Live in ex-urban MA and it’s not common but have had a couple of multi-day power outages in both winter and summer over the decades I’ve lived here. Don’t remember the details of the summer outage but the winter one was a massive ice storm.

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ghc 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Sure, but that's not the same as losing power during the first snowstorm every year. The massive ice storm was back in 2010 IIRC.

	▲	mindslight 13 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The major ice storm I remember might have been 2012 or 2013. There was also a different snow storm (maybe that was 2010?) at the end of October when all the leaves were still on the trees. My parents lost power for something like 6 days (so much damage the crews were swamped). I had been visiting them, and gtfo as the snow was falling, and never lost power 2 hours away. I think this comes back to the framing of the article, stated as universal truths when it's really just someone who was woefully unprepared for a snow storm and subsequent power outage. Life threatening and horribly inconvenient for them yes, but nowhere near a universal experience. Prepare a few days ahead getting groceries, gas, etc. Make sure firewood totes are full. It starts snowing. Do a little shovel work to keep fire fed, if power goes out (rare, but always possible of course) a little more shovel work to set up generator. Wait for snow to stop, clean up with snowblower/tractor/etc, length of time depending on how much snow fell. The main lesson is "be prepared", not all the little things the author got surprised by due to a wholesale lack of preparation.
	▲	PyWoody 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Oof, you just reminded me of the Ice Storm of '98. I can still hear all the trees just exploding. It was wild.

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swiftcoder 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Couple of tail-ends of hurricanes in summer offlined a big chunk of Massachusetts when I was living there. Likely one of those?

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dd82 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

come up to maine and see how much pruning the power companies do. there's a reason high wind and heavy snow storms trash power lines

	▲	ghc 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		As an adolescent in Fayette (Maine), I had great fun helping out our neighbors with summertime tree-pruning parties. FWIW we had few power issues during winter, and our winters frequently featured 4-6 feet of snow cover.

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bitbckt 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Multiple day outages in Winter are not unusual in our part of Maine. Nearly everyone has a whole home generator for good reason.