No Power, School, Or Trick Or Treat In Andover After Storms
ANDOVER (CBS) -- It's been two days since a storm-ravaged New England, and much as 1/3 of Andover is still without power as of Tuesday night.
The impact of the storm caught many in Andover by surprise--where downed trees were still making a mess of the area.
The outages led the town to cancel school for a second day and postpone Halloween trick-or-treating until Sunday between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
A local dance studio opened up their doors for an impromptu bash for disappointed kids, and parents enjoyed themselves too.
One mom said, "Yeah, I think it helps people forget about the fact that there's no power home, food's rotting away, you need a nice warm bath."
At one point, 80 percent of the town had no electricity.
Crews from the DPW and municipal services were working Tuesday to clear roads and ensuring that sidewalks are safe for kids to go back to school.
Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield said the storm and wind created many challenges for his department as well.
"We had an extreme challenge in trying to figure out how many trees were down, how many roads were blocked so that we could figure out a game plan as to how we were going to circumvent those areas that were affected," he said.
He said they also went out several times to provide oxygen for those who needed it but didn't have power.
Andover resident David Bourgeois's truck was smashed by a falling tree.
"My truck broke its fall," he said. "This branch right here went right through the windshield, through the dash, into the glove box."
"We're getting antsy, time to get back into the routine," said Nicole Loring, who is without power in Andover.
Mike Weiss's house was hit by a falling tree, just weeks after completing brand-new home renovations.
"We had just finally finished some of the last touches with painting and a kitchen remodel, and then a new roof," he said. "We're lucky it was just this, and the house can be repaired.
Many residents went to the public library to charge up.
"They stay open later, there's every plug and we're all over the place. It's like the town gathering spot now," said Charlotte Tardugno, who was taking advantage of the library's electricity.
Chief Mansfield reminded residents to be safe around still-damaged areas.
"We should be treating any power line that's down, or any line that's down regardless of power or not, as a live line," he said. "If you do not have power and are using generators, make sure that the generation unit is at least 25 feet from the home. We are still concerned about carbon monoxide issues."
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker reports
