Storm cuts power, closes schools and roads

By JEFF EPSTEIN and GLYNIS HART
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Today’s snowstorm has caused power outages on both sides of the Connecticut River. By the afternoon some power issues from the morning had been cleared by the power companies, but new ones had occurred as well.

Vermont

In southeastern Vermont, the largest impact in our area appeared to have been in the western towns near the mountains. According to Green Mountain Power as of 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the town of Chester had 722 customers affected by 32 power outages. Ludlow has 18 outages affected 642 customers. Cavendish had 28 outages causing 478 customers to lose power. The latter town had suffered many downed trees blocking roads, Town Manager Brendan McNamara told the Eagle Times.

Green Mountain Power reported that Windsor and West Windsor, combined, have 249 customers affected from an unknown number of incidents. Windsor Town Manager Tom Marsh said he knew of one power line down on County Road. Most other town roads were being plowed and sanded as normal, he said.

Green Mountain Power reported that as of around 1 p.m., six outages causes 15 customers in Windsor to lose power. West Windsor had 35 outages affected 194 customers. Weathersfield had 10 outages that caused 125 customers to lose power, and Springfield had 19 outages affecting 392 customers. Weathersfield had 13 outages affecting 138 customers, according to Green Mountain Power. 

Schools in Bellows Falls, Windham Central, Grafton and Jamaica Elementary Schools, Leland and Gray Union High School Newbrook Elementary and Saxtons River Elementary School closed. Windsor, Vermont schools closed for the day. 

New Hampshire

In New Hampshire, Eversource has apparently cleared a morning incident on Prospect Street in Claremont, but was still working on incidents at Myrtle Street and on Bible Hill Road. Many roads in Claremont were down to blacktop by the afternoon.

As of 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Eversource reported at least 114 customers affected in the Claremont area from at least four outages. By 1:45 p.m., that had increased to six outages affected at least 128 customers.

About 39 customers in the Cornish area were affected by five outages at around noon, and by 1:45 p.m., Eversource reported seven incidents affecting at least 44 customers.

Most outages began in the morning hours, and Eversource said the incidents were being investigated.

Claremont schools delayed opening by two hours Tuesday morning, thanks to a snowfall of nearly nine inches that began Monday night and continued through the morning. All afternoon athletic activities and extracurriculars were canceled. 

Some parents kept their kids home for the day, citing safety concerns. Carey Ann Young posted to the school district’s Facebook page, “The road up to Unity is insane! I think whoever is making the call should take a drive up to Unity before making their decision. I drove my daughter up because I did not feel safe with her taking the bus and there were cars sliding and off the road.” 

Jessica Lynn posted: “School should’ve been canceled for sure! Bus 9 is stuck on Bible Hill!” 

Newport school district closed all schools for the day.

Unity and Lempster both suffered power outages during the storm, but according to Eversource fewer than 10 customers in those towns were still lacking power midday Tuesday. Another 20 to 30 customers still lacked power in the Goshen/Newport/Croydon area Tuesday afternoon, where Eversource predicted an extended restoration effort possibly reaching into Wednesday. 

More New Hampshire Electric Coop were affected in Unity and Lempster. In Unity, according to the NHEC outage map, there were 103 outages affecting 550 customers. In Lempster there were 30 outages affecting 748 customers.

Across the state the NHEC was dealing with 4,132 outages that affected 82,146 of their customers. In the Eagle Times coverage area, 6,870 people lost their power.

Schools from Acworth to Plainfield closed for the day. 

At 5 p.m. the N.H. Electric Coop updated its customers through its website: “After working a 24-hour shift, some line crews will be sent home for mandatory rest at 10 p.m. tonight, however NHEC will have other crews working overnight to restore power to as many members as possible. A full complement of crews will be back at work Wednesday morning at 6 [a.m.]. Restoration progress has been slowed today by the hundreds of outages that occurred overnight and into today. Crews have restored power in some locations today, only to return hours later to find another tree or limb on the same line. Work will continue through the night, but if you do not have power by 10 p.m. tonight you should expect to remain without power overnight. We expect most members to be restored by Wednesday night (Nov. 28). However it’s likely that members who are part of smaller, scattered outages will not be restored until Thursday.”