Forget Oil

You're probably thinking that the title of this post has to do with my recent work on arctic oil exploration. It doesn't. I expect to be getting back to that discussion soon. No, I say 'Forget Oil' because of the old metaphor about 'Oil and Water'. The metaphor suggests that some things just don't go together. I say, forget oil...the saying should be "Water and Electricity".


This is a blog about water and my love of it - in all of its forms. But in some cases water is not your friend. Millions of people are feeling that right now in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Maybe we can cut water a break since it was actually more the symptom and wind was the cause but rain, waves, flooding, and erosion have left millions without power or out of their homes. At our hometown of Marshfield massive waves pounded the beaches but overall the town fared pretty well. It certainly didn't rival the other late October storm that we remember so well and that was only 'perfect' in the eyes of meteorologists. But we missed the action in Marshfield this time around. Thanks to great friends our hatches at home were securely battened and we were confident that our house there would survive while we rode this one out in NH.

Here in Lincoln, NH and throughout the North Country everyone is still recovering from last year's big fall storm - Irene. Irene sent unprecedented flooding through NY, VT, and NH. A year later some roads are still being rebuilt. So there was significant anticipation as Sandy moved up the coast. Our place in Lincoln is solid, but it had been severely neglected for many years. We really wondered how it would weather a significant storm and we wanted to be on hand to find out.

Monday was a strange day. The storm was definitely coming. You didn't need a weatherman to tell you that. You could feel it in the air. And you could see it in the air in form of rainbows everywhere. This one hovered over the Church across the street on and off for hours. It wasn't until late afternoon that the wind suddenly picked up and the rain started in sheets. We closed up the storm windows and were pleasantly surprised at how the place held out the storm while we puttered at some interior repairs and watched movies on the laptop.

By 10pm it was time for bed and we were happy that Sandy wasn't all we had been warned of. We did the rounds of the whole house to make sure all was well. To cut to the chase - it wasn't. Water was flowing out of the electrical breaker box. Forget oil! Unlike oil, water does mix with electricity but in a hostile way. Surprisingly there was not a drop of water above, around, or near the box. No sources were obvious. After lots of careful, cautious, and nervous consideration I took the front off the panel and confirmed my worse suspicion. The water was actually flowing from within the main power line coming from outside. This was pretty much a worst-case scenario in my book.

With 20,000 people out of power in NH and crews coming in from as far away as Illinois to help staff the repairs our single-home issue was well off the radar. The details of all the phone calls, patches, repairs are pretty dull. The bottom line is that we survived it, the house survived it, and we were happy to have been here to identify it. Sandy didn't rival Irene around here and in most cases the locals were over-prepared (if there is such a thing). But the point is proved again that water is mighty force, whether it's crashing wave, a overflowing river, or just a few drips in your electrical main. It's also beautiful.