Published in the March 9, 2018 edition.
WAKEFIELD — Widespread damage was reported yesterday after the second nor’easter in a week slammed the town with high sustained winds, rain and wet, heavy snow.
What’s worse is there could be more on the way Monday.
As we prepare to begin daylight savings time, residents woke yesterday and saw what kind of destruction the mighty Quinn caused overnight.
A look at yesterday’s police log tells part of the story.
A power line was down in the middle of Nahant Street at 7:31 a.m., impeding traffic. A crew from the Municipal Gas and Light Department responded.
At 7:38 a.m. a Briarwood Lane resident called to report a large tree had been split in half; one part was lying in the middle of the road and the other came down in a neighbor’s yard. Just after 9 a.m. police were told that wires had begun to arc. The MGLD and the DPW were notified.
An electric transformer blew on Roosevelt Road around 7:45 a.m. Municipal Gas and Light Department personnel responded.
A tree was reported down in a Pitman Avenue driveway just before 8 a.m.
A pole was down on Herbert Street at 8 a.m.
Wires were down and smoking on Mitchell Lane around 8:35 a.m.
A low hanging wire was reported on Bay State Road at 8:52 a.m.
Wires were down and arcing on Walton Lane at 9:05 a.m.
Low hanging and downed wires were reported on Elm Street at 9:12 a.m.
The same thing was reported on Greenwood Street just after 9:45 a.m. Traffic there was impeded.
Low hanging wires was impeding traffic on Fairmount Avenue around 10:35 a.m.
At 10:44 a.. a downed tree brought wires with it on Esmond Avenue. The DPW and the MGLD responded.
A large limb came down on Robert Street and was reportedly resting on wires just before 11 a.m.
Cable lines were down along a section of Main Street around 12:40 p.m.
A box truck was stuck on the on-ramp to Route 128 at Vernon Street around 1 p.m.
Wires were down on Cedar Street at 3:50 p.m.
This morning around 6:20, a cable wire was down at the busy intersection of Farm and Water streets. Police moved it to the side of the road.
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Residents in the Northeast dug out from as much as 2 feet of wet, heavy snow Thursday, while utilities dealt with downed trees and power lines that snarled traffic and left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the dark after two strong nor’easters — all with the possibility of another storm headed to the area.
With many schools closed for a second day, forecasters tracked the possibility of another late-season snowstorm to run up the coast early next week.
“The strength of it and how close it comes to the coast will make all the difference. At this point it’s too early to say,” said Jim Nodchey, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Massachusetts. “We’re just looking at a chance.”
At least two deaths were blamed on the storm.
Snow still was falling Thursday in places including Vermont, where storm warnings were in effect until the evening.
More than 800,000 customers were without power in the Northeast, including some who have been without electricity since last Friday’s destructive nor’easter. Thousands of flights across the region were canceled, and traveling on the ground was treacherous.
A train carrying more than 100 passengers derailed in Wilmington, Massachusetts, after a fallen tree branch got wedged in a rail switch. Nobody was hurt. Tory Mazzola, a spokesman for Keolis Commuter Services, which runs the system for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, said the low-speed derailment remains under investigation.
In New Hampshire, Interstate 95 in Portsmouth was closed in both directions because of downed power lines, leaving traffic at a standstill for hours.
Amtrak restored modified service between New York City and Boston on Thursday after suspending it because of the storm. New York City’s Metro-North commuter railroad, which had suspended service on lines connecting the city to its northern suburbs and Connecticut because of downed trees, restored partial service Thursday.
In Wells, Maine, the Maine Diner remained open even though much of the town was without power after the storm dumped a foot-and-a-half of snow.
“If people are going to lose power, then they need some place to go. We do everything we can to stay open and provide that service,” said Jim MacNeill, the restaurant’s general manager.
Steve Marchillo, a finance director at the University of Connecticut’s Hartford branch, said he enjoyed the sight of heavily snow-laden trees on his way into work Thursday but they also made him nervous.
“It looks cool as long as they don’t fall down on you and you don’t lose power,” he said.
The Mount Snow ski area in Dover, Vermont, received 31 inches of snow by Thursday morning with more still falling. The resort said the snowfall from the past two storms would set it up for skiing through the middle of April.
Montville, New Jersey, got more than 26 inches from Wednesday’s nor’easter. North Adams, Massachusetts, registered 24 inches, and Sloatsburg, New York, got 26 inches.
Major cities along the Interstate 95 corridor saw much less. Philadelphia International Airport recorded about 6 inches, while New York City’s Central Park saw less than 3 inches.
The storm was not as severe as the nor’easter that toppled trees, flooded coastal communities and caused more than 2 million power outages from Virginia to Maine last Friday.
It still proved to be a headache for the tens of thousands of customers still in the dark from the earlier storm — and for the crews trying to restore power to them. Eversource, an electric utility serving Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire, said it could take several days to restore power for everyone due partly to the challenge of clearing storm debris and repairing damage.
Massachusetts was hardest hit by outages, with more than 345,000 utility customers losing service Thursday. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker shut down all non-essential state offices.
In Maine, Republican Gov. Paul LePage also closed state offices and encouraged residents to stay off roads “unless it is an absolute emergency.”
In New Jersey, the state’s major utilities reported more than 247,000 customers without power a day after the storm.
An 88-year-old woman in the New York City suburb of Suffern was crushed to death by a tree that fell as she shoveled snow Wednesday, and a man died Thursday in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, when he apparently drove around cones warning motorists about a downed live wire and the vehicle caught fire.
A pickup truck driver who was struck by a snowplow Thursday morning in Lebanon, New Hampshire, also died. Police said an investigation would determine if weather conditions were a factor.
— The
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