Above: The severe weather made for an unpleasant weekend for many families and a busy one for the Southborough Fire Department. (images cropped from Facebook)
I missed a bit of drama over the weekend. Power outages in the region included an area of Pine Hill Road that impacted hundreds of residents during a record low freeze wave Friday and Saturday.
As temperatures rose on Sunday, some homeowners also had to deal with flooding from busted pipes.
On Friday evening around 6:00 pm, the Southborough Fire Department posted about trees down causing problems on Atwood Street and Bigelow Roads.
After 8:00 pm, they began posting news of a road closure and large outage on Pine Hill Road caused by downed trees, wires, and utility poles. There was later mention of an extinguished transformer fire.
Although SFD’s crews cleared the area that night, it took time for National Grid to be able to restore power. Meanwhile, temps and wind chills continued to drop below zero, causing problems for many residents without heat.
An update on Saturday morning projected the outage would last “throughout the day”.
To allow cold residents to warm up and charge devices, the Town opened the Southborough Library early. (I checked in with them today, and learned that there were some families who took advantage of the offer.)
At around 10:00 am on Saturday, the Community Advocate tweeted that the outage was listed as affecting 155 “customers” in town. (That presumably translates to over 150 households/dwelling units.)
This morning, the SFD updated:
Southborough Fire Department crews were very busy over the weekend with responses related to the extreme weather. Beginning Friday afternoon and ending Sunday evening, duty crews and off-duty members responded to 35 calls for service. The incidents ranged from trees and power lines down, to alarm activations and medical emergencies. On Saturday the department sent crews to the Pine Hill area to assist residents with securing their homes and mitigating safety issues related to a power outage. Saturday night Engine 23 responded mutual aid to Marlborough for a structure fire and as temperatures rose, activity shifted to responses related to burst water pipes.
