While communities in other parts of the country continue to dig out from massive storms, Londonderry the Tuesday Jan. 17, snowstorm with relatively few issues.
Det. Chris Olson wrote from the Londonderry Police Department, “Overall, the storm did not cause any major problems for us. We had the typical vehicle-off-the-road call throughout the storm, but not many of them resulted in an accident. We had a large tree come down that needed to be cut up by the town. We had a detail officer stand by for approximately two hours while that went on.”
Olson further wrote, “We did have to shut Route 28 down for about 15 minutes to allow a tow truck to pull a vehicle out of the woods on Route 28 north of Page Road. Overall though, nothing out of the ordinary.”
According to logs, police responded to motor vehicle accidents at Mammoth Road and Nashua Road, Mammoth Road and Pillsbury Road, Rockingham Road and Page Road, Route 93 between exits 4 and 5, Gilcreast Road, Gilcreast Road at Charleston, Moulton Road and Route 28/Commercial Lane.
Fire Chief Darren O’Brien also wrote in an e-mail, “To the best of my knowledge, the storm created no additional responses for the Fire/Rescue department. I received no reports of any power outages from our residents”
Londonderry emerged relatively unscathed from Monday night Jan. 24 nor’easter.
Battalion Chief Fred Heinrich of the Londonderry Fire Department said in a phone interview Tuesday that the department had only responded to two accidents on Monday, and both were minor. One person was transported to the hospital but with minor injuries, Heinrich said. While police went to “a number of accidents,” none appeared to be severe, according to Heinrich.
One of the town’s problem spots is the “S” curve on Auburn Road, Heinrich said. But there were no serious incidents from that area, he said, adding, “Knock on wood.”
Heinrich attributed the low incidence of serious accidents to the fact that drivers were well-warned. “There was enough advance notice and people were scared,” he said.
In addition, Heinrich said, the storm really hit Londonderry in the evening, after school buses were off the road and parents home from work.
The town also made out well in the area of power outages, according to Kaitlyn Woods, a spokesperson for Eversource. “I don’t think Londonderry had any significant outages,” she said in a phone interview Tuesday.
According to the Eversource “outage map,” the only towns receiving significant outages were in the Laconia/Tilton and Keene/Jaffrey areas.
The utility has been keeping up its tree-trimming schedule and that helps, Woods said, observing that outages usually come from heavy winds and ice build-up.
In addition, she said, Eversource has invested in technology including what Woods called “smart switches.” When an outage occurs this tech allows the company to identiy where the breakdown is, isolate it, and reroute power to the affected area.
Londonderry schools were closed Tuesday, and evening activities cancelled.