The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Trick-or-treating delayed amid cleanup after storm
PORTLAND, MAINE » Hundreds of out-of-state reinforcements bolstered utility crews struggling to restore power throughout New England on Tuesday, a day after a powerful storm blew down trees and postponed Halloween activities in many communities.
The storm, packing gusts that topped 80 mph, left nearly 1.5 million homes and business across the region in the dark at the peak Monday. More than 800,000 customers remained without power Tuesday.
The storm caused more power outages in Maine than an infamous 1998 ice storm, which left some people in the dark for two weeks.
The state’s two major utilities said favorable weather and extra crews will allow them to complete the task of restoring power this weekend.
“We’re a resilient state, and we’re used to severe storms,” said Peter Rogers, acting director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency.
In Maine, the nation’s most heavily wooded state, fallen trees were tangled in power lines. Trees, limbs and leaves littered roads. Fences, vehicles and houses were smashed by falling trees and limbs.
Miraculously, no serious injuries were reported.
The storm packed winds gusting to 82 mph on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 78 mph at the Isle of Shoals, New Hampshire, and 69 mph in Portland, Maine.
Some cities and towns in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut postponed trickor-treating from Halloween night, Tuesday, to as late as Sunday due to concerns about pitch-black streets, downed power lines and debris.
In Harpswell, Maine, Samantha Morrell dealt with a tearful 8-year-old daughter after Halloween events were canceled in Harpswell and Topsham, where she has family. Neighboring Brunswick
also was discouraging trick-or-treating.
“She was hysterical,” Morrell said of her young zombie cheerleader. “She said, ‘They can’t cancel Halloween!’”
The storm caused problems across all of New England: A house was swept away by raging waters in New Hampshire, sailboats crashed onto a beach in Massachusetts and an empty construction truck was blown off a bridge.
From Maine to Rhode Island, Coast Guard officials were assessing damage. Crews identified more than 50 vessels torn from their moorings. Many of the vessels were unmanned and adrift while others were washed up on shore.
In Massachusetts, a sewage treatment plant in North Andover lost power during
the storm and spilled 8 million gallons of untreated waste into the Merrimack River, North Andover Town Manager Andrew Maylor said.
Because of the power outage, a pump failed to move waste into the treatment plant, allowing the waste to back up and flow in the river, he said.
There was no immediate threat to residents, and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection was looking into the matter, he said.
In Maine, U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican, called for an investigation after the state’s only Veterans Administration hospital outside Augusta asked for emergency power during the storm.
The Maine Emergency Management Agency had National Guard soldiers deliver a large backup generator on Monday.
A spokesman for the Togus VA brushed aside questions of whether care was impacted, calling the episode a “nonissue.”
In Vermont, dairy farmers who lost electricity in a wind storm that caused widespread outages across New England were relying on generators to power milking equipment to milk cows and to keep the milk cool. Vermont is the largest dairy producing state in New England, with about 800 dairy farms.
The scope of the damage in Maine made comparisons to the ice storm inevitable. That storm wrecked the power delivery system in eastern Canada and New England, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage.
Roger Pomerleau remembers the 1998 storm well. He said the cold temperatures made that storm harder on a lot of people, but this storm is the one that knocked out his power, which remained out Tuesday.
“The temperature is in our favor right now. Those were cold temperatures back then,” he said. “Freezing temperatures. Sump pumps weren’t working, cellars were filling up with water. Very different now.”
The weather this week is seasonable, with high temperatures in the 50s and 60s, though the low Wednesday morning was predicted to approach freezing.