Tewksbury Postpones Trick-Or-Treating In Wake Of Storm

TEWKSBURY, MA -- With more than 4,500 customers still without power in Tewksbury and National Grid saying it could taking a "multi-day effort" to restore power to all of its customers, the town postponed trick-or-treating until Friday night from 6 to 8 pm. Tewksbury Police Chief Timothy Sheehan said the town was sending out a notification through its alert system and that Tewksbury public schools would also be distributing information to parents when schools reopen Tuesday after Monday's cancellation.

As of 6 pm Monday, 4,644 of National Grid's 12,744 customers in Tewksbury were without power. The utility said it was working on repairing transmission lines before moving onto outages on delivery lines, and that the repair of damage from the overnight wind storm could take several days.

Tewksbury police and DPW crews were playing a game of whack-a-mole Monday morning as they attempted to clean-up from the overnight windstorm that left more than 5,000 homes without power. Tewksbury Police were urging residents to use caution when detouring onto side streets not designed for heavy traffic and new reports of downed wires were coming in as workers tried to clean streets of debris and utility workers tried to restore power.

At 12:30 p.m., Tewksbury Police said a tree and power lines are down on Main Street near the Wilmington line. Motorists are advised to avoid the area as local police and fire respond. At 10:30 a.m., a tree resting on wires forced the closure of Whipple Road between patten Road and Chandler Street, according to Tewksbury Police. Close to half of Tewksbury woke to no power service Monday morning. National Grid was reporting that 5,782 of its 12,774 customers in Tewksbury were without power at 11:30 am Monday morning. The utility said it was assessing conditions but could not offer an estimate on when service would be restored.

Tewksbury Public Schools will be closed all day Monday. Downed lines should be reported immediately to National Grid and to the Tewksbury Police at (978) 851-7373. For questions related to power outages or electricity, contact National Grid at 1-800-465-1212.

While more than 300,000 customers were without power in Massachusetts last night, the Merrimack Valley seems to have been hardest hit by the storm. In Essex County, 72,192 National Grid customers were without power. Throughout the state, crews were working to clear roadways of large limbs that were blocking traffic. Other roadways, including Memorial Drive in Cambridge, were closed due to flooding, promising a nightmarish morning commute.

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Photo of damage on Ward Street in Tewksbury by George R. Brooks Jr.

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