Paul Hatch sent a message to the Lake Buel mailing list. I’m posting it here with some minor edits to remove references to particular properties:

Hey Everyone,

Last night was a wild and wooly, full-blown January nor’easter-like night. Trees and boughs were crashing all over the place.  I took a long walk around the Lake Buel Road side of the lake this morning and found only one tree on a house….  There were lots of very near misses, and some smaller trees down that got cleared up pretty quickly.

 

Power and phones over in the Downs Road area went out at 7:25pm Monday night and have stayed out.  There was a live power line down across Downs Road, which is why the road was closed. When I came upon it mid-morning, it was surging, sparking and generating 3 to 4 inch flames in the leaves and pine needles here and there. Pretty impressive, so I trotted the rest of the way up to Lake Buel Road, flagged down a truck, and urged the driver to contact National Grid when he got into cell service and let them know they needed to get out here now.  Must have worked as the reports show the road opened later in the afternoon.  But I’m not sure if the power is back on in the immediate neighborhood yet.  I left the lake at about 1:30 this afternoon and it was still down at that time, and Bill reported it was still out at almost 6pm.

I took a fairly comprehensive tour of the lake and found very little significant damage. I was not able to view every single cottage, but a good number of them. Gibson’s Grove was in good shape as was Laurel Banks, Abel’s Ridge and Dentist Row.  The Camp Half Moon entrance was blocked off so I didn’t get down there, or North Cove. Along the way, I spoke with some contractors who were out and about making sure their clients were all ok, so if there’s a problem with  your cottage, you probably know by now.  …

 

The lake is up only a few inches.  Chris Hassett told me he and Mark Amstead (and Pete Hagen?) were going to work on the outlet control over the weekend in advance of the storm, and apparently their work was helpful.  Thanks, guys!

 

I hope this helps alleviate your concerns, and my best wishes go out to those of you who were in harm’s way elsewhere.

With warmest regards,

Paula

Thanks, Paula! We’re all glad you’re safe.