Editor’s Note: I’m sticking this updated post to the top through the storm.
Refresh your browser to see the latest updates. The most recent updates will be at the top. Scroll down for newer posts.
Updated (1/3/14 12:07 pm): To clarify for those who were unsure – the Transfer Station is open today.
Updated (1/3/14 8:08 am): Town services are a go for today (aside from school). The Town House is open and library set to open for 10:00 am. National Grid reports no outages. Snow is forecasted to stop accumulating within two hours.
Looks like we made it through this storm just fine. (Though for those of you who haven’t cleared your driveways yet, it may feel otherwise!) Just don’t forget that the severe temperature warnings are still in effect through Saturday. I don’t recommend making snow angels today.
Updated (1/2/14 6:25 pm): Library closing at 6:30 pm tonight. Friday hours still TBD.
Updated (1/2/14 5:05 pm): Town tweet informs that free skate at St. Mark’s rink cancelled for today and tomorrow.
Updated (1/2/13 4:50 pm): This afternoon brought word that schools are cancelled now for Friday as well.
The Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough will be closed all day tomorrow, Friday, January 3, 2014, due to the continuing storm and the dangerous driving conditions.
As usual this decision has been made in conjunction with public safety officials.
By Monday, the public school break will have been 16 1/2 days long. I’m guessing for some preschoolers in town, the break was even longer.
Updated (1/2/14 8:55 am): Southborough Food Pantry’s Friday morning hours are closed this week (January 3rd) for snow. So far, no other town services closed.
Just when we were finally sending the kids back to school after a long winter break came the 5:30 am alert – Snow Day.
Southborough Schools and Algonquin Regional High School are cancelled today. [Editor’s note: School is also cancelled for Friday.]
I’ll update the post later if there is news on town resources being closed or cancelled meetings.
For now, I’ll just add the notice from Southborough Emergency Management last night:
Southborough Emergency Management will move to a Level (I) = Standby/Monitoring Thursday though Saturday for both the Storm and Cold Temperature Events. Emergency Plans are in place and ready to implement if needed. Monitor local weather.
If you have not signed up for the Southborough CodeRED notification system (Town residents only) and/or Twitter feed do so now on the Towns website: www.southboroughtown.com*.
Interestingly, it is the extreme cold that seems to be the biggest concern in the report. Warnings include danger of frostbite, breathing problems, freezing pipes, and loss of home heating.
The report recommends the following actions:
- Overall: Ultimately to avoid many of these hazards the best action is to stay inside. If you must go out limit time outdoors, dress in layered clothing & keep hydrated.
- Frostbite: Slowly warm any effected skin and seek medical attention
- Breathing: Keep your mouth & nose covered and always have your emergency/rescue inhaler with you.
- Home Heat Loss: If you loose heat DO NOT use alternative heat sources such as space heaters, stoves, etc. (fire & carbon monoxide hazards). Dress in multiple layers and immediately contact you heating service company. If heat cannot be restored relocate to a family/friend’s house, hotel or call 9-1-1 for assistance.
- Water Pipes: If you loose you power and/or heat, continuously flow slow water from a faucet on each level. Do not use alternative heat sources to warm pipes. Note: frozen pipes do not usually “burst” until they start to thaw.
For more details on expected conditions and hazards, click here for the full report.
Could someone please shed some light on why Southborough decided to wait until 5.40 a.m. to wake our families and inform us that there would be a snow day today when surrounding communities were making the call last night. Wondering how this system evolved and if there is not a better way so that families, especially working families can plan for childcare, etc.
It was clear by all weather reports yesterday, that we could anticipate a foot of snow between midnight Thursday and midday Friday. It seems to make more economic sense for both the town and families to be more on top of it.
Dr. Gobron does the best he can in these unknown situations. Many times he waits because when the snow decides not to come he takes the brunt of the opposing view. How about we appreciate his careful consideration for the best interest of our children.
When you have kids in school, you can expect to sometimes be woken up by an early phone call announcing a snow day..It goes with the territory. And it wasn’t clear how much snow we would get and when..The forecast kept changing. Dr. Gobron was trying to do the right thing. If school had been cancelled the night before, and then conditions were okay for going to school, I’m sure he would have gotten complaints about that. Deciding these issues puts one in a most unenviable position.
When I was a kid, we’d wake up earlier than usual to hear Jack Chase read the “no school” reports on WBZ. It was great hearing our town called off–No school, all schools…
I think Dr. Gobron handled this one perfectly. I hope they didn’t turn up the heat too soon!
Just FYI, by 11pm Wednesday night, not one of the surrounding towns had cancelled school for Thursday either. Framingham held school today and did not have a snow day. It was not clear from the reports that things would be bad by say, mid-afternoon on Thursday at all. While I don’t like calls at 5:40am either, I think Dr. Gobron exercised prudence in waiting to see what things actually were like.
Just wanted everyone to know that the Southborough Library will be opening at 10 a.m. today, Friday, Jan. 3.
I agree with the others that waiting is better. If they had waited to make the decision today, the kids really could be at school as the storm was pretty much out of here and roads were fine this morning. There is something wrong when school is closed and your kids are immediately making plans for you to DRIVE them to their friends’ houses.
SB Resident; when you say that Dr. Gobron should have “waited to make the decision today,” what timeframe are you thinking of? I walked to work this morning in incredibly slippery conditions at 6:30 (our driveway hadn’t been plowed yet), the exact time that my high schoolers would have been waiting to be picked up by the bus, since they couldn’t get the car out of the driveway.
It was only a 15 minute walk, but I was completely frozen by the time I reached my destination, so I shudder to think of students standing out waiting for buses that would undoubtedly have been running behind. Temperatures were dangerously low, according to weather forecasters, and the roads really didn’t clear until later in the morning. Yes, I agree that school could probably have gotten underway at around 11:00, but with staggered times to allow for buses to transport all students, that would probably have meant a less than 3-hour school day, which wouldn’t count as a full day anyway.
By the way, the Governor had requested that people stay off the roads until 12 so that plowing crews could do their jobs. I’m afraid school just wasn’t in the cards today.