Storm Rips through Great Gnome-out

gp: February 27, 2010

Storms and Blackouts!

It's been a while since reporting could happen from the Great Gnome-out, and much has transpired. A particularly viscous late winter / early spring storm came through New Hampshire this past week. The hurricane force winds, combined with mixed heavy rain and snow took down trees and branches all over, and took out power and Internet to the Grizwald residence, the host for this year's event, for almost a week.

As the spectators and Event staff returned to the site, all were astounded at the effect Mother Nature has wrought upon our Contest. Several large trees were knocked down on the Grizwald property, and the surround neighborhood has been substantially damaged, with several of the access road complete blocked by down trees and power lines.

At the pond, water now surrounds the Event area ice on several sides, and the flow both into an out of the pond is dramatic. What are normally sleepy little waterfalls at either end of the pond are now rushing torrents of water. Indeed, the volume is so great that the back edge of the pond has overflowed and is also a waterfall.

A headcount finds all Contestants present and accounted for with a few of the smaller entities struggling with water and melting into the ice somewhat. Debris on the ice makes finding a few of the little folk problematic.

With the future forecast for a warming trend, the ice will continue to decrease -- the Gnome-out is truly underway!





Gerald Putzny for Gnome Press International