Sunday, 8/28/11 was a busy day for BPD and the Town. As of this morning there are still 2,254 National Grid Billerica customers without power. Currently we continue to work with National Grid in addressing the following problems:
Irene (Dead End) has been blocked by a fallen tree on power linesRogers St is blocked at Mt Pleasant by low wiresRexhame is blocked by a tree into wiresPatten is blocked by a tree into wires- Utility poles are leaning at the intersection of Rangeway and Chelmsford
The Town cannot open these roads until National Grid addresses the power lines that are affected. At 9:30AM this morning Deputy Chief Doyle reiterated these issues to National Grid. Hopefully, they will be addressed soon.
Between 6AM and Midnight on 8/28 Patrol Officers and Paramedics answered calls for:
- 34+ trees down
- 26+ wires down
- 20 false burglar alarms
- 8 medical calls
- 5 911 hang ups
- 4 reports of suspicious activity
- 3 domestic disturbances
- 3 fires
- 1 vehicle crash
- 1 report of natural gas odor
- 1 requested well-being check
- 1 larceny
- 1 report of animal cruelty
- 1 disabled vehicle
- 1 mutual aid K9 deployment to Tewksbury MA
In case you might be wondering what the “animal cruelty” incident is all about….. Apparently, Irene was not entertaining enough for one young man so he decided to drive over pigeons at the Billerica Mall parking lot after luring them in with bird seed. Yes, he will be facing criminal charges.
Fortunately, the storm was not as bad for us as it could have been. However, every event like yesterdays storm is an opportunity to evaluate our response and improve on it the next time.
BPD would like to thank Emergency Management, Department of Public Works, Billerica Fire, National Grid and especially the Billerica Tree Department for all their hard work. We would also like to thank all Billerica residents for their cooperation during the storm.