During and after the deluge, some Upper Valley residents persisted in their holiday weekend plans. Others improvised.
Meanwhile, scores were cursing the darkness on Saturday after their power went out while rain soaked and ice coated the several inches of snow that had blanketed the region the day before.
But wait. There’s more: After a sunny reprieve today, a new cycle of snow begins on Monday, then a long siege of cold.
Today “will be the best travel day for the holiday,” National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Evenson predicted from Burlington. “We have issued another winter storm watch for Sunday night through 4 p.m. on Christmas Day, when we have the potential for 6 or more inches of snow across the area.
“Everybody wants a white Christmas, right?”
Well, provided the lights stay on.
As late as 6:30 Saturday night, utilities were reporting on their websites that more than 2,000 Upper Valley customers remained without power, including more than 700 in Sharon, more than 500 in Strafford and more than 100 each in Hartford, Hartland, Royalton, Vershire, West Fairlee and Unity.
Near sundown, some 180 Hanover customers of Liberty Utilities, many in neighborhoods around Balch Hill, had reported outages that lasted nearly an hour.
Around the same time, Green Mountain Power’s online outage map showed 336 customers in the dark in Hartland, 312 in Royalton, 175 in Bethel and 153 in Norwich.
Royalton native Rob McShinsky, who lives on Route 14, was relieved to dodge the bullet while overseeing his 14-year-old daughter, his 12-year-old son, his 6-year-old twin sons and his girlfriend’s 12-year-old twin daughters.
“The crisis of teens without internet was averted,” McShinsky said. “There was, however, an epic snowball fight.”
Hanover residents Jim and Jerry Mitchell, meanwhile, saw a silver lining and a window of opportunity in the bout of rain that was pelting Route 12A in West Lebanon at high noon. The slick roads seemed to be keeping down the usual throngs of threshold-of-Christmas shoppers both on the road and at the cash registers in the BJ’s Wholesale Club.
“We’ve lived around here for a while, and we’ve seen a lot worse,” said Jim Mitchell, who was leaving BJ’s with provisions for Christmas dinner with his father.
“In fact, it was harder getting up Blueberry Hill late last night than it was getting down here today. As long as you don’t try to go too fast, you’re OK.”
Other drivers were less cautious. The Vermont State Police’s Royalton barracks reported “many” cases of cars skidding off interstates 89 and 91. In West Lebanon, first responders closed part of 12A briefly at mid-afternoon to remove a car that got stuck.
At the New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s Enfield garage, dispatcher Corey Corliss reported that while plow drivers from the department’s District 2 “have been seeing a few cars off the road … the majority of people are taking it easy.”
In Bradford, Vt., where the state police barracks reported few highway incidents, the weather didn’t seem to be deterring shoppers at Farm-Way, which sells outdoor gear and shoes, as well as livestock and pet food.
“It might be a little less than we usually see on the Saturday before Christmas, but overall I think our customers are kind of adventure people anyway,” Farm-Way President Carol Metayer said.
“It’s a hardy group. They’ve got their snow tires and appropriate gear.”
At Upper Valley ski areas, they’re counting on the Christmas snowstorm, and on the cold, dry air that the weather service is predicting will run into next weekend, to inspire adventurers from near and far to hit the slopes.
“We never have huge crowds before Christmas,” Dartmouth Skiway General Manager Doug Holler said from the lodge in Lyme Center. “There are still Christmas parties going on and people are still shopping, and family coming and going. If the forecast holds up, we’ll be fine during the week.”
At Suicide Six in South Pomfret, General Manager Tim Reiter also was counting on snow and colder temperatures for the run to the New Year and beyond.
“With the rain we had this morning, the line of cars is not what I would hope to see on a busy holiday Saturday,” Reiter said. “But we should be fine for the heart of the vacation week. Cold is good for skiing, and for people to come in and warm up in the lodge.”
In the category of be-careful-what-you-wish for, pianist Elizabeth Borowsky was preparing her students to play a recital on the subject of “Let It Snow” at the Hanover Greens nursing home late last week. Then so much fell on Friday that the young musicians ended up staying home — though not idle.
“It was a toss-up,” said Borowsky, who lives and teaches in Lebanon. “A few folks thought that they could make it in but the vast majority agreed that it was better to stay off the roads. I was sad not to get to see my students before our winter break, but came up with the idea of an online recital … to let them share some of the pieces they’ve been working on. We have to be creative these days.”
(The videos are viewable at pianoprodigies.com/blog/let-it-snow-online-holiday-recital-part-i.)
The weather also prompted Cape Air to cancel several of its Saturday flights between Lebanon Municipal Airport and Boston and between Lebanon and New York. Still, the regional airline needed Brenda Potter to staff the customer service desk at the terminal in West Lebanon.
“My daughters drove me in this morning,” said Potter, who lives in Sharon. “My husband is coming to pick me up after work.
“The ride home will be a lot of fun tonight.”
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.