Andover Schools Open For First Time Since Wind Storm

ANDOVER, MA -- The first true sign that life is almost back to normal in Andover came Thursday morning, when the town reopened public schools for the first time since the Sunday night wind storm that blocked roads with fallen limbs and flooding, postponed Halloween and knocked out power. By 7:15 am Thursday morning, National Grid said 1,842 of its 14,041 customers in Andover were still without power, but could expect a restoration of service by 11:45 pm tonight.

The utility has 800 crews working and said by Thursday morning just 12,000 customers in Massachusetts were waiting for electricity. But those 12,000 were largely consolidated in the Merrimack Valley, where the storm hit hardest. In addition to the 1,842 people in Andover waiting for power, National Grid gave a break down of customers in other Merrimack Valley towns waiting for power:

• 1,223 of 29,189 customers in Haverhill
• 1,614 of 20,307 customers in Methuen
• 1,357 of of 12,560 customers in North Andover
• 688 of 43,015 in Lowell
• 674 of 12,774 in Tewksbury

National Grid said that 33 high-tension transmission lines that run through the Merrimack Valley were knocked down in the overnight storm from Sunday into Monday, which is why so many communities in the region have gone so long without power. The utility focused its initial effort on repairing the work to repair the transmission wires, which restored service to the largest number of customers. National Grid then had to follow that work with the piecemeal work of repairing the delivery wires that run through towns and neighborhoods.

As a result, several towns postponed Tuesday night's trick-or-treating to later in the week, including:

• Sunday, 4-7 pm in Andover.
• Saturday, 5:30-7:30 pm in North Andover.
• Friday, 6-8 pm in Tewksbury.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).