Thursday, December 11th
10:15 AM
Bill Raleigh was at his computer when his computer made a quiet beep, alerting him to the email which had just arrived in his inbox. The message was from the National Weather Service and it contained information about a storm that was poised to strike the northeast late Thursday evening into Friday afternoon. It warned of significant icing throughout the region, along with gusty winds and the potential for significant snow accumulation. The report also warned of possible damage to communications systems as well as utility outages, and the State Emergency Operations Center's (SEOC) activation level was upgraded to level II. Raleigh was not significantly alarmed as Greenham (and the rest of New Hampshire) dealt with storms such as these seemingly every year. He alerted critical personnel including the Police, Fire, and Public Works departments to the developments from the NWS and continued about the business of the day.
4:00 PM
Patrolman Dennis Daugherty arrived at the Greenham Police headquarters for a double shift; 4:00PM to 8:00 AM. A long night for sure, but the 46 year old graying officer did not mind covering for a younger officer whose wife went into labor early that morning. It had been raining all day and he wiped pellets of water off of his jacket as he slid into his patrol car. The sun was nearly set and the temperature began to steadily drop. Ice was already beggining to form on his windsheild and he knew he would be dealing with weather related accidents all night. Roads were already beggining to feel slippery and he noticed more than a few cars having trouble accelerating out of the stop sign he often parked his car near. He sat with a mug of coffee and the heat blarring as the night landscape began to gloss over with a sheet of ice.4:00 PM
Jim Baskind, a 24 yeard old utility worker for Public Service of New Hampshire, the state's largest power supplier, was on call tonight and unhappy about it. He had been offered free Bruins tickets but had no choice but to turn them down. So when he looked at his caller ID and saw his boss's number he answered with a surly "Ya"? His boss informed him that a major storm was on the way and it was expected to knock out power around his area of operation. Jim was summoned to work to sit and wait for if and when things got bad.
Ann Richards had always been very active in the Greenham community. She had served on the PTO, coached youth sports teams, and had been a volunteer for the Red Cross for over twenty years. Part of her responsibilities as a Red Cross volunteer was to manage the community shelter serving Greenham and two surrounding towns. At noon on Thursday she had been alerted that there was a serious potential for power outages in the region, and by 4:00 PM she had been busy preparing the area's community shelter at Greenham High School. Red Cross supplies including Meal's Ready to Eat (MRE's), Cots, Blankets, and emergency first aid equipment were stored in the schools, and Richards was busy setting everything up and awaiting the arrival of the first shift of volunteers. She listened to reports from across the region of worsening conditions, and continued to prepare the shelter.