In a statement released Wednesday, Unitil reported that among the 17,000 customers still without power, more than 2,200 of them are in Lunenburg, or 50 percent of the town, and more than 900 are in Townsend, or 25 percent of the company’s customers in that town. Nor do more than 880 customers in Ashby have power — six days after the storm.
While we don’t work for Unitil, and don’t know all the ins and outs of that business, we have to say that we are not impressed. Judging by the number of calls of distress to our offices, we are not alone in that opinion.
A similar sentiment holds true for National Grid. On Wednesday, 19,000 customers in Worcester County remained without power, including Harvard with 1,100 of its households in the dark. In Middlesex county, 1,300 households remained without power, nearly half of them (600) in Pepperell. According to company estimates, power should be restored in Harvard by today, in Pepperell, yesterday.
We are not strangers to storms and the widespread outages they cause. But if this is the best our power company’s can do for us, we could one day be in really big trouble.
For little Groton Electric, however, great job!
Angels in Townsend
For Christians worldwide, this is a season of hope, peace, joy and love — the message delivered more than 2000 years ago by angels.
Angel #1: Gift from Sterilite Corp. and the Stone family — library, senior center, highway garage. Mr. Albert Stone requested the library be named for Richard and Irene Collette. Longtime Townsend residents, Dick is a former selectman, integral to inviting the new plastics company to build in Townsend.
Angel #2: Last Thursday, Dec. 11, the Collettes were in a very serious accident on Route 13. By all accounts, a truck driver saw their car crossing into the oncoming traffic lane, toward him. Alert and composed, the driver compromised his own safety and drove the tractor-trailer truck off the road and into the woods, averting an even more tragic event and probably saving the lives of Dick and Irene.
Angel #3: Townsend’s EMS team. A witness at the scene attributes the Collettes’ well-being to their professional and truly caring manner.
Everyone is doing well. The truck driver is back on the road.
A quote from Dick Collette, 86, made some months ago as he awaited the new library’s dedication early next year: “As one moves from middle age to old age, thoughts of the Grim Reaper and the grave are common. Alas comes Sterilite, the Stone family and the Library, and one’s thoughts change to ‘Please, not yet, not yet, not net. I would like to hang around to see the final act.'”
The angels delivered.
