Over 1,000 lose power
Published in the August 12, 2015 edition
THE LIMB of a massive maple tree came crashing down on top of the sidewalk, driveway and stonewall at 714 Main St. during the double-header thunderstorm Aug. 4. (Maureen Doherty Photo)
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
LYNNFIELD — Not one, but two damaging thunderstorms roared through town last Tuesday.
The twin thunder boomers were accompanied by high winds and wreaked havoc in both the morning and the afternoon in specific areas of town. South Lynnfield was more impacted in the morning while the center of the town received the brunt of the damage in the afternoon.
Downed trees blocked roadways and caused sporadic power outages in several areas of town when they fell onto power lines. Police set up numerous detours throughout town to enable tree crews, the DPW and the power companies to do their work and to keep the public from areas where the power lines were still live.
At least two homes were damaged by fallen trees during the morning storm, one at 111 Locksley Rd. when an oak tree fell through the roof of the master bedroom and the other at 8 Timberhill Ln. when two trees reportedly fell through the roof of the home. No injuries were reported related to either of these fallen trees or any of the other storm-related calls for assistance.
Police, Fire respond to dozens of calls
“The storms came in two separate times and parts of town. The first was in the morning and impacted the Pillings Pond area and the second was in the afternoon and impacted the Apple Hill area of town,” Fire Chief Mark Tetreault told the Villager.
“The damage was somewhat limited to specific parts of town,” he added.
Indicative of the magnitude of the response required by public safety personnel, the Fire Department responded to 33 calls on Tuesday alone – 22 of which were storm-related – while the Police Department fielded at least a 10 storm-related calls in the morning and another 10 in the afternoon.
At least seven storm-related calls were handled by the Fire Department on Tuesday morning between 8:04 and 9:48 a.m. followed by another 15 calls for storm damage between 3:08 and 6:43 p.m.
“We did have other calls to handle as well but we were able to call back on call staff to assist,” Tetreault said. In a typical week, the Fire Department may respond to about 50 to 60 calls. Last week, they responded to a total of 57 calls.
HIGH ABOVE the street, a Mayer Tree crew member painstakingly cuts down the limbs of an oak tree that became entangled in power lines at 938 Main St. after the second wave of thunderstorms tore through town last Tuesday afternoon. Commuters were detoured around the scene via Wing Road. The power outage in this area lasted 19 hours for over 20 homes. (Maureen Doherty Photo)
Over 1,000 lose power
Power outages affected 90 customers of the Reading Municipal Light Department (RMLD) in the morning storm and nearly 1,000 RMLD customers in the afternoon storm.
“The length of time to repair damages done to primary and secondary electric wires required extensive tree work, including the use of a logging truck to remove the trees from the wires,” according to Priscilla Gottwald, community relations manager of the RMLD, which provides electric service to the Lynnfield center area.
“The damage was extensive at each location and the damaged areas spanned from areas of Wilmington all the way to Lynnfield,” RMLD General Manager Coleen O’Brien said in a statement. O’Brien added, “It was an amazing amount of damage restored within 24 hours.”
According to RMLD Chief Engineer Peter Price, the first line of thunderstorms that came through Lynnfield impacted the Thomas Road and Bancroft Street areas. “There were multiple trees and branches that came down and knocked out this area,” he said, which resulted in a loss of power to approximately 60 customers from 8 to 10:21 a.m.
“The same storm took down a tree on Essex Street that knocked out power to 30 customers from 8:15 to 9:30 a.m.,” Price said.
The second line of storms came through the RMLD service territory around 2:45 p.m. Just after 3 p.m., Price said, “a number of trees came down and pulled our main and secondary wires down on Lowell Street, in the area of Norris Road and Main Street, in the area of Strout Avenue.”
This power outage affected 248 customers in Lynnfield and power was restored just after 6 p.m. “We were able to isolate the problem and get part of the circuit back. Essex Street, Yorkshire Drive, Pillings Pond Road, Wildewood Drive, Oak Ridge Terrace, Midland Road, Melody Lane, Evans Road and the associated side streets lost power for three hours,” he said.
Another 464 customers in town lost power for about 12 hours before it was restored just after 4 a.m. on Wednesday. Price said the affected area included Lowell Street from Chestnut Street to the Peabody town line; North Hill Drive and Apple Hill Lane; Main Street from Summer Street to the Peabody town line; Carter Road, Saunders Road, Homestead Road, Durham Drive, Pine Hill Road and the associated side streets.
19-hour outage
Price said the longest outage lasted 19 hours and occurred on Wing Road and Strout Avenue affecting 22 customers. Power was restored to these customers at about 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
This long outage was attributed in part to a huge oak tree that fell at 938 Main St. and became entangled in the power lines. A road block was set up during the evening commute to detour motorists onto Wing Road to bypass the area while crews from Mayer Tree cut it down before RMLD crews could restore power.
An additional 257 RMLD customers lost power for 8 1/2 hours when a tree came down on Bay State Road in Lynnfield just after 3 p.m. and burned down the primary wires, Price said.
The affected areas were Bay State Road, Pine Street, Freeman Street, Edward Avenue North, Edward Avenue South, Olde Towne Road, Heritage Lane and associated side streets.
“We had power restored at 8:55 p.m. to everyone but Edward Avenue North,” Price said, explaining the outage lasted a couple of extra hours on that street because a tree also took a pole down.
“We had some smaller area outages and damaged services calls as well,” Price said, adding, “There was a third line of storms that came through around 7:15 p.m. which gave us a couple of problems. We estimate that approximately 2,700 to 3,000 customers experienced a power interruption because of the storms territory-wide.” The RLMD service territory also includes Reading, North Reading and Wilmington.
A request for comment on the number of South Lynnfield customers of the Peabody Municipal Light Plant (PMLP) affected by storm-related power outages was not returned by press time.
DPW crews kept busy
The storm also kept DPW crews busy during and after the storm. “We responded to numerous calls of trees and large limbs down on roadways and sidewalks throughout town,” DPW Director Andrew Lafferty told the Villager.
Lafferty added that DPW crews were “kept on after the regular duty day to continue response from the second storm. There were some large trees that impacted the roadways and utility lines along main roads like Main, Lowell and Chestnut streets, to just name a few.”
“Surprisingly the vast majority were private trees that fell onto utilities and roads. Crews worked late into the evening to make roads passable and the cleanup continued for three days,” Lafferty added.
On Monday, Lafferty said the DPW still has “some issues on town property to address” related to storm damage but these issues will have “minimal impact on the public.”
“Reading Municipal Light and our DPW crews worked closely to assist in clearing roads. We also had assistance from Mayer Tree who provided a tree crew to work with the DPW, in addition to their crews working with RMLD,” Lafferty said. He said the assistance provided by Mayer was “instrumental” in enabling the DPW to get its work done “so quickly.”
The storm did impact the ongoing road reconstruction projects in town last Tuesday as well as the days following the storm.
“We did pull crews off other projects, like the road construction, in order to address the debris,” Lafferty said, adding, “We did have some town trees damaged and we will be assessing them in the near future to determine if they will need to be removed.”
Fire response
The 33 calls logged by the Fire Department last Tuesday were: 8:04 a.m., 1 Michaels Rd., gas leak (natural or LPG) caused by fallen tree onto large propane tank; 8:16 a.m., 111 Locksley Rd., fallen tree, building or structure weakened or collapsed; 8:19 a.m., 8 Timberhill Ln., two fallen trees through roof, building or structure weakened or collapsed; 8:22 a.m., 2 Squire Ln., power line down; 8:32 a.m., 8 Longbow Circle, wind storm, tornado/hurricane assessment; 9:41 a.m., 6 Stoneway, building or structure weakened or collapsed; 9:48 a.m., 9 Hunting Ln., severe weather or natural disaster/HazMat release investigation with no HazMat present; 10:20 a.m., 915 Main St., accident with no injuries; 10:51 a.m., 832 Lynnfield St., accident with injuries.
Also, 3:08 p.m., Main Street at Wing Road, power line down; 3:09 a.m., in front of 7 Kimball Ln., wind storm, tornado/hurricane assessment; 3:15 p.m., Bay State Road at Freeman Street, power line down; 3:20 p.m., in front of 177 Essex St., power line down; 3:24 p.m., 472 Lowell St., power line down; 3:24 p.m., 45 Grey Ln., power line down; 3:33 p.m., 530 Lowell St., power line down; 3:38 p.m., 1 Country Club Dr., food on stove, no fire; 3:45 p.m., 15 Carter Rd., severe weather or natural disaster; 3:45 p.m., 34 Carter Rd./Verizon building, service call;
As well as, 3:59 p.m., 10 Orchard Ln., severe weather or natural disaster; 3:59 p.m.,10 Apple Hill Ln., power line down; 4:11 p.m., Olde Towne Road at New Meadow Road, power line down; 4:22 p.m., 23 Wing Rd., power line down; 4:28 p.m., 16 New Meadow Rd., good intent call; 4:33 p.m., 60 Edward Ave., power line down; 5:04 p.m., 1043 Main St., power line down; 5:16 p.m., 14 Huntingdon Rd., EMS call; 5:45 p.m., 430 Essex St., dispatched and cancelled en route; 6:43 p.m., Longbow Circle at Longbow Road, power line down; 8:53 p.m., 4 Tappan Court, carbon monoxide incident; 11:43 p.m., 5 Summer St./Centre Congregational Church, unintentional sprinkler activation, no fire.
Police response
Storm-related calls to police logged on Aug. 4 included 10 calls in the morning and 10 calls in the afternoon. At 8 a.m., a resident of 1 Michaels Rd. reported that a tree fell and landed on her large propane tank, which is leaking. The call was handled by the Fire Department. At 8:01 a.m., a caller at 507 Essex St. reported a downed tree and power wires were blocking Essex Street. Peabody Light and the DPW were notified.
At 8:02 a.m., a resident of 8 Timberhill Ln. reported that two trees fell through his roof. The DPW and the Fire Department responded. At 8:04 a.m., a caller reported a tree down on Thomas Road blocking the street. The DPW was notified. At 8:05 a.m., a tree was reported down on Hunting Lane, also blocking the road. The DPW and Fire Department were notified.
At 8:47 a.m., a tree and wires were reported down on Thomas Road at Newhall Road. The responding officer reported that RMLD was on the scene. At 8:50 a.m., a caller reported wires down on Fletcher Road. Peabody Light was notified. At 8:54 a.m., wires were reported down at Flagship Motors, 385 North Broadway (Rte. 1). Police notified Mass. Highway.
At 9:07 a.m., police notified Mass. Highway that a tree was down at the intersection of Salem and Munroe streets. At 9:09 a.m., the DPW and Fire Department were notified by police that wires and a pole were down on Squire Lane.
At 9:18 a.m., a caller reported a tree was blocking Longbow Circle and leaning on wires. Peabody Light and the DPW were notified.
At 3:23 p.m., police notified the DPW of a tree down at 1046 Main St. Also at 3:25 p.m., police notified the DPW of a large limb down at 7 Homestead Rd. At 3:26 p.m., Reading Light was notified of wires down on Bay State Road. At 3:27 p.m., police notified the DPW, Fire Department and Reading Light of numerous downed trees and wires at locations in town.
At 3:46 p.m., a resident of Durham Drive reported that her neighbor’s tree fell on her fence. She was advised by police that the tree is on private property.
At 4 p.m., police provided traffic control at 321 Chestnut St. at 1 Townsend Rd. during storm debris clean up. At 4:20 p.m., police provided traffic control at 555 Lowell St. and 1 North Hill Dr. during storm debris clean up.
At 4:34 p.m., people were reportedly moving traffic cones to drive around downed trees at Wing Road and Strout Avenue. At 5:35 p.m., police assisted RMLD with traffic control while power was being restored at 758 Main St. and 11 Essex St.
At 10:40 p.m., a caller from RMLD reported receiving about a dozen phone calls allegedly from a local resident harassing employees and using foul language. Police checked the house address given and found that it appeared to be unoccupied.
