I just got this information from Selectman Bill Boland:
PUBLIC INFORMATION RELEASE—Southborough Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator Jean Kitchen, Public Information Officer Monday August 29, 2011 noon
The Town of Southborough is still in a recovery mode dealing with the aftermath and effects of Hurricane Irene. First and foremost, at this point we ask that you only call 911 in the event of emergency. For other calls and information please call 508-485-2121.
As of noon most of the Town is still without power. National Grid has several crews in town and the surrounding area attempting to restore power as soon as possible. Due to the large number of problem areas, they are not able to give us an estimate as to when power will be restored at this time. Please be aware as well, that many current residential telephones require electricity in order to operate.
At this point the only road closure is Pine Hill Road at number 78. Bridge Street is also closed for paving.
Effective at 12:00 noon the Town’s shelter will be moved to Trottier Middle School on Parkerville Rd. and will no longer be located at Woodward School.
Due to a structural fire at the Boland Pumping Station the Selectman have called for a immediate mandatory outside watering ban until Wednesday August 31 at 5:00 PM.
The DPW has opened access to the brush disposal area at the Transfer Station. Access to the disposal area is from the lower DPW area. The gate to the Transfer Station is not open. The transfer station will open on Wednesday if power is restored. Only brush may be disposed of in this area—please no stumps, logs or trash.
While it is difficult to communicate without power, we are attempting to release information through the Town’s website and two local websites mysouthborough.com and southboroughnews.com. Both of these sites may also be providing information through Twitter or Facebook. We understand it is difficult to view websites without electricity but many residents may have the ability through work or handheld devices.
You may call Massachusetts 211 to see if there is current information from Southborough.
We will physically post information and releases at The Town House, 17 Common Street and at Station 2 on Harrington Court in Southville.
More information will be released as available.
Thank you for this update and appreciate the efforts to restore power. Please post a similar update when power is restored.
Thank you so much for the updates! It was a circuitous route to work this morning!
From National Grid (email to their customers) @ 2:30PM Monday:
Tropical Storm Irene caused significant damage to National Grid’s electricity system across the northeast. Today, we are focused on public safety and responding to 911 emergency calls. Crews have begun outage restoration. We urge customers to continue to take safety precautions even though the weather has improved. Remember that all down wires should be considered live. Please call National Grid at 1-800-465-1212 for NE and 1-800-867-5222 for NY or 911 to report any lines down.
You can also visit our website or find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Text Irene to 50101 to receive mobile updates from us on storm restoration efforts.
Re: structural fire at the Boland Pumping Station this morning. I drove by at about 10:00am this morning at what looked like recent awareness that the fire was occurring (that is, vehicles were just arriving) and I was amazed at the number of service vehicles that were on or approaching the scene. Two fully equiped fire engines, several other fire vehicles, and two police vehicles. Who knows if more arrived after I left the scene. Was that amount of armory really necessary?