Central Mass. snowfall leaves thousands without power

LUNENBERG, Mass. — Heavy, wet snow adhered to boughs and branches in north central Massachusetts — and that meant power outages in several communities.

By late afternoon, more than a thousand customers in Lunenburg were without electricity. About half the customers in Harvard, Phillipston, New Salem, Warwick, Royalston and Ashby were also in the dark.

Ashburnham remained one of the few towns in the area to not lose electricity. But resident Brian Mulroy was bracing for that possibility.

“There’s a lot of stuff on the trees from the other day, so we’ll see what happens today,” Mulroy said. “There were some limbs down.”

In fact, there were limbs down all over the area — even though, by New England standards, this was a modest snowfall — and one that remained highly localized.

Connie Curley delivered mail this morning in Fitchburg.

“We’re used to this and we have to deliver in it all the time,” she said. “The roads earlier today were better. I think they’re starting to get slippery because the snow’s starting to come down.”

Jody MacMahan hadn’t lost power as of mid-afternoon. In any case, she was happy to see the snow.

“I appreciate it more because I work remote,” she said. “I don’t have to go out in this stuff if I don’t want to.”

At Cherry Hill in Lunenburg gathered those who most definitely wanted to go out in this stuff; sledders who had the day off from school.

Lugh Dumais, 12, described runs down the hill as amazing — despite the imperfect snow.

“A little slushy,” he said. “It rained, then it snowed again.”

But the nature of the snow allowed Lugh, his brother and a friend to pack together a sled jump.

“I want to get at least five feet off the ground,” said 9-year-old Harry Dumais.

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