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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
As many as 30,000 homes in southern New Hampshire and more than 4,000 in northern Massachusetts remained without power this morning from Monday's ice storm -- and things are expected to get worse before getting better.
Forecasters predict that temperatures will plummet into the teens this afternoon, while 20 to 30 mph winds could knock down more tree branches still sagging with ice.
"It's a combination that could do addition damage," said Mary-Jo Boisvert, as spokeswomen for Public Service Company of New Hampshire, the state's largest electric utility with 475,000 customers.
The damage in New Hampshire was concentrated in the southern and southwestern parts of the state, where a mix of sleet, snow, and freezing rain was coating roads, trees, and power lines with ice. The storm hit Derry hardest, leaving 8,500 people still without power this morning. About 7,000 homes were dark in the Keene area, while another 5,800 people near Amherst were still waiting for power.
The Public Service Company had 60 two-person crews working to restore power who were joined by an additional 28 two-person teams that came to New Hampshire from Connecticut Light and Power and the Western Massachusetts Electric Company.
In Massachusetts, about 4,400 National Grid Customers remained without power in the Merrimack Valley and northern Worcester County, according to spokesman David Graves. Haverhill had the most people out of service with 1,300. National Grid also had about 500 customers near Salem, N.H., without power.
National Grid hoped to have electricity restored by this afternoon, but that estimate was contingent on the weather.
"If the wind picks up and the temperature drops, there could be additional outages reported," Graves said.
Posted by the Boston Globe City & Region Desk at 09:59 AM
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