BELCHERTOWN — Nearly 1,000 people lost power Sunday night after storms knocked over trees and electric poles on almost a dozen roads across Belchertown.
According to Fire Chief John Ingram, a thunderstorm accompanied by straight-line winds moved through the south area of town at 5:20 p.m. The Wilbraham Regional Dispatch Center received over 30 calls for service regarding fallen trees, broken wires and toppled poles throughout the area.
No homes were damaged but two people were evacuated due to loss of power, and one man was trapped in his car by electrical wires that landed atop his vehicle, Ingram said.
Roads closed at 5:55 p.m. included Summit Street, Chauncey Walker, Route 21 on Turkey Hill, Rockrimmon Street, Green Avenue, Ludlow Road, Shaw Street, Helen Lane, Maplecrest Drive, Barton Avenue and Hemlock Hollow. Ingram said pairs of first responders went from door-to-door to check on residents who had lost power, inform them of the situation and supply any help necessary.
“We used our new reverse 911 system for the first time and did a reverse call to everyone in town to let them know what was going on,” Ingram said. “We reached about 200 people who are signed up for that service, and we would like to get as many residents signed up for it so when these situations do occur, we can get the notifications out to them.”
The Fire Department, Police Department, Department of Public Works and National Grid responded to the various calls for service.
“National Grid responded initially with a supervisor and some trucks to address the situation, and then after surveying the area, called more resources and trucks to help assist,” Ingram said. “Our approach was to get the streets opened up and make it safe for travel and then his crews would start working on restoring power to the areas.”
By Monday morning, Shaw Street, Green Avenue and Ludlow Road were still impassable. According to the National Grid Power Outage map, most of the power outages had been fixed by Monday morning, with the remaining of four outages along Granby Road, Shaw Street and Ludlow Road addressed by the afternoon.
Ingram encourages all residents to sign up for the town’s reverse call system at www.belchertown.org/671/In-The-Know for future emergency updates.
