Ice wreaks havoc on high country: Entire towns lose power
Entire towns lose power
Saturday, December 13, 20081
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PLAINFIELD - Closer to the sky than the rest of Hampshire County, this Hilltown took some of the worst that Thursday night's ice storm dished out.
Plainfield, as well as Chesterfield, Cummington, Huntington and Worthington, were all essentially without electricity even by Friday evening, with power losses expected to continue through the weekend. Other parts of Hampshire County saw roads blocked and power lines broken by falling trees, and even some flooding. Western Massachusetts Electric Co. estimated about 20,000 customers in Hampshire, Franklin, Hampden and Berkshire counties lost power in the storm's aftermath.
At 9 p.m., WMECO reported that more than 4,000 customers in Hampshire County, and more than 5,000 in Franklin County, were without power.
A utility spokeswoman called damage to power lines "significant."
Destruction was also extensive in the hill communities on the east side of the Valley, particularly in Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury.
The National Weather Service warned that as temperatures fall this weekend, people without power face hardships in their homes. The Red Cross opened shelters for those without power, but the closest one is in Worcester.
As they cleared tree debris and fired up generators Friday afternoon, many longtime Plainfield residents said they'd never seen the like.
"Oh boy, what a mess," said Richard Smith, who was out with a chain saw on Gloyd Street. He'd already worked his way through other road-blocking trees, starting outside his house around the corner on Pleasant.
"We were out hunting deer, but we're not going out in this," Smith said. "With everything cracking we'll probably get clobbered on the head."
While most main roads in Plainfield and surrounding towns were passable by about noon, bent and fallen limbs narrowed the pavement in places to half its normal width.
Lots of tall, skinny trees were arching their trunks under the ice's weight, while their branches rained melting cylinders of ice onto passing cars. On Route 112 between Cummington and Worthington, two tall birches bent right over the road like tent poles.
Word got around quickly that the half-dozen or more Western Massachusetts Electric Co. crews working in the Hilltowns were fighting an uphill battle.
"The wind keeps knocking more trees down," said Gary Fournier of South Central Street. "I just talked to a guy from the power company who said the lines are coming down faster than they can put them back up."
Fournier, wearing a hard hat, said he had to haul out his chain saw twice Friday morning - once on waking up, and again after the wind brought down a new trunk across his driveway.
Like everyone in the town, Fournier's electricity and phones were out, but he did have a wood stove. Come next year, he should have plenty of fuel for it.
Farther up the hill, at the corner of Central and Main, Bill Sheppard had just gassed up his generator. He was using it to power his furnace and sump pumps in two of his neighbors' homes.
Besides dropping hundreds of little branches all over his property, the ice also weighed down the power cable that supplies his house and yanked his electric meter right off the wall.
"I've never seen anything like it, and I've lived here since 1985," he said. Not even the infamous 1998 ice storm, which wreaked similar havoc across the state, could compare. "This is one to remember."
Nearby on Church Lane, Gerry Connell was in his garage coaxing a generator he said he hadn't used in 20 years.
Inside, his wife, Peg, was listening to the sounds of frozen trees cracking in the distance. "It's like gunshots going off all over the place," she said.
Down at the Lightning Bug on Route 9 in Cummington, owner Deb Emerson said she was anxious for the power to come back on.
"This is a big weekend," she said. "It's the end of shotgun season. This is going to put the kicker to it."
Hunters won't have any trouble weighing their kill, Emerson said. But unless the electricity comes back to power the shop's griddle and coffee pot, they will go hungry and uncaffeinated.
All big hassles, to be sure, but the storm did make for some spectacular scenery. For the short time the sun was out early Friday afternoon, the light reflecting off frozen hillsides was dazzling.
From an overlook on Plainfield Road in Cummington, John Barrett and Shira Linn were taking full advantage. As Linn squeezed through a stand of ice-coated saplings, Barrett snapped a photo.
One of the biggest
"It's one of the biggest storms we've seen," said Western Massachusetts Electric Co. spokeswoman Lacey Girard. "There's significant damage to our infrastructure."
WMECO crews worked alongside tree-removal contractors to get access to power lines. In Plainfield, workers armed with chain saws and glorified hedge trimmers were hoisted up in cherrypickers to cut problem branches away from vulnerable power conduits.
Girard urged people to stay away from downed lines.
Municipal road crews and emergency responders around the county had plenty of downed trees to contend with.
Travelers on Route 9 in Goshen contended with a certifiable traffic jam about 11:30 a.m. as a MassHighway crew tried unsuccessfully to pull one tree out of the road with a pickup truck. The obstacle was ultimately eliminated with the help of chain saws.
Westhampton Streets Superintendent David Blakesley said about a dozen large trees and many smaller ones fell in town during the storm.
Residents of several homes on Edwards Road were trapped by fallen trees across the road, blocking any vehicles from getting through, Blakesley said. He added there were reports that several parked vehicles were damaged by fallen trees, but was not sure where.
"It's kind of a nasty storm for the first one of the year," Blakesley said.
About 40 percent of homes and businesses in Westhampton were still without power Friday evening, according to WMECO's Web site. About a third of the company's customers were without power in Easthampton and Southampton.
Southampton Highway Superintendent Edward Cauley said Friday his crews unclogged cross pipes that had caused flooding on Gilbert Road, Riverdale Road and East Street.
Half a dozen trees on the upper section of Fomer Road were felled by the ice, Cauley said. The road was closed for several hours Friday morning while crews removed the trees, but no property was damaged, he said.
"Ice is a nightmare," Cauley said. "I'd rather deal with snow than ice."
Easthampton road crews were out most of the night and early morning treating roads with sand and magnesium chloride, an alternative to sodium chloride new to the department this year that is expected to save money as well as better preserve highway trucks.
"I think we fared much better than some of our surrounding neighbors in the higher elevations," said Public Works Superintendent Joseph I. Pipczynski.
The steep and narrow Mountain Road section of Route 141 remained open during Friday's storm, he added. The road has been closed in past storms for plowing.
In Leverett, Amherst Road between Juggler Meadow and Depot roads was closed to through traffic after a vehicle spun out into a utility pole around 11 p.m. Thursday. Highway Superintendent Will Stratford said officials were worried the pole might fall.
About half a dozen trees also came down during the storm, but none fell into the roads and only one fell onto utility lines, Stratford said.
"It's gone OK," Stratford said. "We haven't had any serious damage as far as trees falling on wires."
With the storm winding down, the Leverett Highway Department was working on minor flooding issues and washouts Friday morning.
Pelham road superintendent Richard Adamcek said his department, aided by police and fire personnel, was still trying to get some roads reopened Friday morning. There was still a half-inch coating of ice on surfaces in the higher elevations.
"Trees are down everywhere," Adamcek said. "There is no power at the top of the hill."
The problems were localized, depending on elevation, with Shutesbury and Packardville roads among the hardest hit, according to Adamcek.
According to state police, Route 202 between Pelham and New Salem could be closed for up to two days due to icy conditions and downed trees and power lines.
This story contains additional reporting by Scott Merzbach, Mary Carey, Phyllis Lehrer and Matt Pilon.