Rhode Island Storm Update Through Friday Evening, Feb. 8

Yahoo! News is gathering brief first-person accounts, photos and video from the severe winter weather in the northeastern United States. Here's one resident's story.

FIRST PERSON | WARWICK, R.I. -- I was surprised this morning when I got up and realized it had not begun to snow. The storms "merge" had slowed down, so I went out to my early morning doctor appointment that hadn't been canceled. An hour later when I came out, it was snowing lightly, but steadily. All media outlets were out and at the ready to file moment to moment reports. But the day was disappointing.

I live in Warwick, and Rhode Islanders are famously terrified of snow. Grocery store shelves were decimated early on. By 4 p.m. the street plow had gone by my house at least four times, even though our accumulation was only about three inches. And then the wind changed.

The official "merge" of the two storms happened. The wind shifted around to the Northeast. I could hear it whistle through the roof vents. The consistency of the snow changed from soft and fluffy to heavy and wet. Between 5pm and 6pm the accumulations had increased to two and three inches per hour. I can't see out our windows because the wind has the snow stuck to all the screens and windows.

By now, all the agencies had recommended or demanded people to go home and get off the streets. I was talking on the phone to a friend who lives much nearer the Rhode Island southern coastline when I heard a crash in the background. My friend said, "The lights just flickered and two branches from a tree came down." We wrapped up our conversation as we could hear more trees breaking under the weight of the snow and high winds.

As of 8:30 p.m., we already have a foot of snow. The heavy accumulations are expected to continue for hours. About two hours ago, only a few hundred people in Rhode Island had lost power. Now, it's up to about 14,000.

I have my flashlights at the ready. I expect we'll lose power in the night. We have plenty of food and blankets, but with the storm time stretched out so far, it could be a long wait to get power back on. As a safeguard, I'm shutting down my computer right after I post this.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rhode-island-storm-friday-evening-feb-8-023900490.html

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