Dec 18, 2008 5:42 pm US/Eastern
Crews Race To Make Repairs Before Storm's Impact
WORCESTER (WBZ) ―
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Clark Street off of Burncoat Street near Sutton Apts. in Worcester on Friday the day after the storm.
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Worcester County is bracing for a one-two punch of winter storms tomorrow and Sunday expected to dump up to a foot of snow on the region which has yet to recover from last week's ice storm of historic proportions.
Damage already done is only worse north and west from Worcester, which is where we went Thursday, as did representatives from Federal and Massachusetts Emergency Management Agencies, and local officials surveying damage, power outages and rushing to get ahead of the incoming storms which will only complicate debris removal and some power restoration.
A monstrous claw cleared debris from Ontario street in Worcester's Burncoat section as public works commissioner Bob Moylan supervised and strategized preparations for the approaching storms.
"It really will be problematic up here. So we are trying to beat the clock. Clearly we know we won't get it all done before tomorrow morning," said Moylan, who was trying to make sure thoroughfares and side streets were clear for plowing, passable for emergency vehicles and residents.
Moylan says weeks of work remain to get all the debris out of the way.
A National Grid crew from Rhode Island restored power to a house on South Lenox Street in Worcester. Crews from as far as Michigan, Nova Scotia and Virginia were working on other Worcester streets, restoring power and checking voltage.
A municipal light crew from Shrewsbury was working along Walnut Street in Holden where Susan Mack lives. She had been without electricity since Thursday midnight. So, she went home at midday to try the switch.
"Oh we have light! We have light! This is great," she told Ron Sanders. Wires are still down across the street from Susan's house but her spirits are up. "We have power...I know it's been very frustrating for a lot of people. You know, I feel like there are people far worse-off than we have been."
Carol Hector-Harris is part of a FEMA and MEMA team making preliminary damage assessments in central Massachusetts towns such as Oakham where everyone lost power. She likened debris piles there to what she saw after Hurricane Katrina. After the preliminary assessments, Governor Deval Patrick will review them and decide whether to ask the President for a disaster which would provide more funds for local reimbursement than the $5 million already made available by the President's declaration of an emergency.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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