UPDATED: More than 2,300 Lose Power, Dirlam Circle Residents Cut Off
National Grid and DPW crews working feverishly to deal with damage from storm.
UPDATE: 8 p.m.
As of 8 p.m., National Grid had restored power to around 2,100 residents in the Long Pond/Whipple Road area.
There are still more than 200 residents without power, including a 79 customer cluster of Fiske Street in North Tewksbury.
Tewksbury Patch will continue to keep you posted on the latest outage information.
Original Story
Hurricane Sandy may have made landfall in New Jersey but her impact has certainly been felt in Tewksbury.
Trees, limbs and utility wires are down from one end of town to the other, leaving more than 2,300 customers without power as of 7:30 p.m. Most of those in the dark are in the Long Pond/Whipple Road area.
But the biggest problem is being felt by those living on Dirlam Circle, who were cut off from the rest of the town around 5 p.m., when a tree came crashing down across the road, taking power lines with it.
The situation was made much more dangerous because Dirlam Circle had flooded and the live wires came to rest in the water, electrifying it.
As of 7:30 p.m. crews were still working on the situation, trying to kill the power to the neighborhood, clean up the wires and remove the tree.
According to the broadcast reports, Hurricane Sandy brought wind gusts as high as 61 mph to the Merrimack Valley. As the day wore on, the rainfall picked up and as much as two inches are predicted by the end of the day.
Private Account
8:21 pm on Monday, October 29, 2012
What about south Tewksbury near the vfw we've been without power since 2pm what are they not going to bother to try and restore ours only north tewksburys
Melissa Gleaton
8:42 pm on Monday, October 29, 2012
Isn't Dirlam Circle IN south tewksbury?
Kathleen Brothers
9:18 pm on Monday, October 29, 2012
Yes, Melissa. Not to far from Walgreen's.
Alice Walker
8:56 pm on Monday, October 29, 2012
Don't you think some live electrical wire in standing water should get fixed first?
Janellen27
9:51 pm on Monday, October 29, 2012
Private Account: The PD is busy with minute-to-minute downed trees with live wires embedded, flooding, and more. National Grid will get to you, sooner or later. Be patient. The way it works is if restoring one situation returns power to 350 homes, they'll do that first, before restoring power to the area where only 12 homes are out. You KNOW they will get to you as they are working every minute throughout the duration of this hurricane. It's going to be a "warm" night, so we're not terribly in danger of freezing. Just hang in there and think about all the people with totally flooded houses, etc..
Janellen27
9:57 pm on Monday, October 29, 2012
Alice, has that been reported to the PD? I trust it has. At this point, nearly every downed live wire is in some kind of water. It's impossible to tell, most of the time--especially in the dark--whether they are cable, telephone, or electric. Don't go near them, and remember to report electric outages immediately: 1.800.465.1212 National Grid.
Sarah
11:40 am on Tuesday, October 30, 2012
I tree came down on Rogers and the streets off of it from Main to about Marston are all out as far as I can tell, including most of Kennedy and it's off streets. Funny, last night I went to enjoy some power at a friends... ON DIRLAM CIRCLE.
Me
2:12 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The dead end end of Heath St completely blocked off too - tree came down and also took power lines....Cant get out, trapped like rats
Jennifer murphy
9:10 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Half of Dirlam circle is out. The other half has it. A tree took down wires and it only affected one side of the circle.