Northeast Learns Lessons From '08 Ice Storm

KATHY McCORMACK

JAFFREY, N.H. (AP) — One of the huge pine trees that surrounded Sieglinde Poegel's home of 42 years crashed through the roof and landed in her living room during the ice storm that crippled much of the Northeast last December.

"It sounded like I was in a war again. I lived through World War II in Germany when the bombs fell, and I was scared something awful," she recalled.

Poegel and her husband, Werner, were unable to return permanently for several months to their home in Jaffrey, about 15 miles from the Massachusetts state line.

This year, they are taking no chances.

"The house is repaired and we took another step — cut every tree on our property out. Every one of the trees," said Poegel, 72. "I've still got rhododendron bushes, so we don't really miss them."

As the cold season returns to the Northeast, residents, utilities and emergency managers say they're better prepared, thanks to the lessons from that ferocious ice storm Dec. 11-12 that left hundreds of thousands without power — some for two weeks.