Historic Hallowell

Clio Barr's Interview of Wendy Wingate about the Ice Storm of 1998

Q: Did you lose electricity during the ice storm?

A: We did lose electricity and I think that when we woke up at five o’clock that morning the electricity was gone. So, we had no lights and of course the heat had gone off. And we didn’t have a secondary source of heat, we didn’t burn wood or anything. So, as the day progressed and we realized that the heat wasn’t coming back on, we had to think about what kind of heat we could get. So, we started calling around to find out who had a kerosene heater. Everywhere we called had just sold the last one. So we ended up having to drive to Brunswick and we went to a store called Service Merchandise and we bought the last one. Now Brunswick had not lost its power, so that was one place that hadn’t been effected; maybe because it was towards the coast and they didn’t get the same ice storm that we did. So we got our kerosene heater and we drove back to Hallowell. We really had no idea how to start it and it was getting dark. And we were trying to read the directions, we had a flashlight, we weren’t doing well. And we had to have picked up some kerosene, so we did have some kerosene that you had to pour into it. And there was a filter you had to put on it, and you had to careful that you weren’t putting it on a surface that could be damaged by it. And so we eventually had to call someone to help us get the kerosene heater going. And by that time the heat had been out since five in the morning and it was freezing; the house- the whole house was just freezing. We then decided that we needed some lights. So we had a couple of those hurricane lamps that also used kerosene, but we had to figure out how to light those. So, eventually, we did get those lit.

Q: Did you recognize a change in your family, self, or neighbors during that time of mutual crisis? How did you help others get through it?

A: Well, it was pretty different because I think we were all pretty dependent on our music, and our television, our refrigerators, and our showers, and our washing machines. And so all of a sudden we didn’t have any of those things. I had- we had a kerosene stove from camping. So we had lots of camping equipment. So we did get our cooler out and we did get our stove out. I have a number of elderly neighbors and so we would make coffee in the morning, we had a lot of those mugs with the covers on them. And so we would deliver coffee to our neighbors in the morning. And they were very happy to get a hot cup of coffee. And also there was one radio station that was broadcasting. And we had a radio with batteries. And so every night we would all sit around and listen to this one radio station. It pretty much told stories about where the power was out, and who was getting their power back, and all stories related to the ice storm.

Q: What was it like outside? Was there a lot of damage near your house with the trees, buildings, and roads?

A: It was pretty incredible that roads were blocked off with trees that had fallen over. And we had a couple of trees in our yard that we couldn’t get our cars out of our garage because the trees had fallen across the garage. And so until we got a chain saw and cut up those trees we couldn’t go anywhere. It was just totally blocked, and another neighbor’s tree fell across another part of our driveway so we had to move that. Fortunately, my son was home from college and his car didn’t go in the garage so we were able to have some transportation until we removed the trees from our yard.

Q: Did you record or document any pictures, reflections, photographs?

A: Well when the sun came out, I just picked up my camera and said this is going to be gorgeous, I have to get out there before it melts. And so I did walk all over Hallowell taking as many pictures as I could of churches, and City Hall, and the Fire Station. I thought those would be fun to look back on.

Q: For entertainment, it was a lot of the radio and talking?

A: And game playing. Some board games. And listening to that- pretty much listening that radio station was our evening entertainment. I think you went to bed earlier. Because it was just dark and it was cold. There weren’t restaurants to go to, there just weren’t places to go, so you spent a lot more time with your family.

Q: Were most of the businesses, if not all, in downtown Hallowell closed up?

A: I think any place that had a generator, I think your food stores were able to get generators. For safety purposes your hospitals and fire departments and places like that had generators, so they were able to stay open and be helpful.

Q: Speaking of that, what did you eat?

A: The first thing that was happening was that you were going to lose everything in your freezer and you were going to lose everything in your refrigerator. So I started cooking huge things like chop suey, or anything that you could stir the frozen vegetables into. And just make big pots of food that people could eat. And just trying to consume all of the food that was in your freezer. At the beginning it wasn’t that cold out, but it eventually started to get colder. And so then you could just put your cooler outside and put your food in it, for that and that was how we worked that. We had use of a generator. We shared a generator with Wingate Lathe Oil and they came up. We shared it with one more family. The folks from Wingate would bring the generator up and we would get two hours of the generator. That gave us the ability to take a shower. It would run anything for two hours. We were like ‘No, no please don’t take the generator!’ But we knew that it would also heat up the house and you could get the the furnace running. But actually the kerosene heater, it was like 90ºF in the kitchen where we had it. But the rest of the of the house, it eventually did- it was comfortable as long as we kept that running.
Q: What were your feelings and concerns during this? If you had the generator for heat you weren’t too worried about that.

A: Well, I’m a teacher and they were canceling school every day. So I was a little bit concerned about all the school days we were missing. A lot of people who couldn’t get a kerosene heater for heat or didn’t have the use of a generator had to leave their homes. And so they were going to different shelters, I think that the Augusta Civic Center was one of the shelters. That was a little bit worrisome. Really day after day of not having any power, you just realize how dependent you are on all of the things that you like to do. So that, after a while it was just getting old. We were not happy. We wanted to get back to our regular life. Every morning you had to clean your kerosene lamps in the morning because by 4 o’clock it was going to be dark. And if you put that off- there were just a lot of things that were hard to deal with.

Q: Overall, how well do you think Hallowell recovered and repaired after the disaster?

A: Well, I think they had started right away to try and clear the roads so that people could get to their homes or get through and go to places. And I think Hallowell did a pretty good job of doing that. Individual people all had to call the Tree People. As spring came and as the snow melted there were just branches everywhere, just all over as a result of the Ice Storm. It really took years to continue. If you have a sharp eye you can still look at some of the trees in the forest that are still bent over and damaged.

Q: Please use one word to describe the Hallowell Ice Storm of 1998.

A: Scary.

Written by Clio Barr