December 9, 2009

How much snow did you shovel?

The National Weather Service says about eight inches of snow fell in Tyngsboro. How much did you shovel? Let us know.

Posted by The Sun Newsroom at 3:30 PM | Comments (0)

For news photog, occupational hazard

Veteran Sun photographer David Brow's vehicle was rear-ended on Middlesex near Wood street shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday as he stopped to avoid a snowplow backing out of a nearby condo complex. Brow, who had been photographing minor accidents and the slippery commute for the newspaper, said he was not injured and his vehicle was still drivable. It sustained damage to the rear lights and fender. The other driver was also not believed injured.

Brow, ever the professional, kept on working:

This cow doesn't seem to mind the new fallen snow on Forest Street.

Kirstin Pimental clears her driveway as her son, Cooper Pimental, 3, takes a break and watches her, on Dunstable Road in North Chelmsford.

Posted by The Sun Newsroom at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

Wet snow causes outages

Thousands of residents Billerica, Dracut, Tewksbury, Andover and Methuen were without power for several hours as the heavy, wet snow took a toll on electrical wires according to National Grid. Power went out in the Kenwood section of Dracut shortly after 9:30 a.m., affecting 1,172 customers. In Tewksbury, 5,021 customers in the Shawsheen and River Road sections of town were without power. The outage in the River Road area extended into Andover while smaller outages were reported in Billerica and Methuen. The New Hampshire communities of Derry and Windham also experienced scattered outages.
The storm will be over by evening.
But in the end, expect about 1 to 3 inches or so of snow turning to a lot of slush in the immediate Lowell area when the rain cranks in this afternoon, forecasters said. Points West, like Pepperell and Townsend, already had 3 inches of snow by 8:30 a.m.

Posted by The Sun Newsroom at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

Maybe it would be better if I fitted my car with skis?

I-495 N - Less than 5 mph in some spots

It's a mess out there. If you don't have go out today, stay off the roads. It's icy on I-93 and I-495, with traffic crawling under 5 mph in some spots. I saw a bunch of 18-wheelers stopped on the side of road on I-495 N. And forget about the Lowell Connector. It could be an ice rink for all the plowing they haven't done. I saw one woman pulled over on the side of the road (At least I think it was the side of the road - the lines aren't visible). She was facing the wrong way...
--Erin Smith

A truck driver pulled over on I-495 N

I-93 N near I-495

Posted by The Sun Newsroom at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

Minor school bus accident

Nobody was injured when a car slid into a school bus at the intersection of West Sixth Street and Freemont Street in Lowell, just after 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Trinity Ambulance was called to the scene as a precaution, police said.
There were several reports of minor fender-benders and spinouts throughout the Merrimack Valley as the region saw its first appreciable snowfall of the season. -- Dennis Shaughnessey

Posted by The Sun Newsroom at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

Pepperell to Lowell: One hour plus

Snow was already falling in Pepperell at 4:30 a.m. when I took Brady, our 11-week-old Yorkie puppy, out to do his business. By the time I left the house at 8 a.m. in my Subaru Forester, at least 3 inches of snow were already on the ground and the roads were a mess. I turned back, not because the roads were impassable, because I realized my oldest daughter was going to have a rough commute to Fitchburg State College, which had announced a two-hour delay. Better to have her using all wheel drive than me, I thought. I was already back on the road and in Dunstable in her Volvo convertible (no top down today!) when she called me with news that FSC had canceled. Not to worry, even though the roads were rough, her car managed just fine even though her snow tires are still sitting in the garage. If I had to grade the roads on my way in, here's what they'd be:
Pepperell: C (although the heavy equipment was out in full force downtown, so it would be only a matter of time before the town's snow-removal effort would be its usual A.
Dunstable: B+.
Tyngsboro: B.
Route 3 south to the Connector: D (not much evidence of plowing on this road at 8:30, although the good news is that I didn't get stuck in the conga line). Route 3 north was being plowed, though.
Lowell Connector: B-.
Lowell: C-. Thorndike to Dutton was a real mess. This is a major artery into the downtown, and I expected it to be in better shape at 9 a.m.

Finally made it in to The Sun's offices just after 9 a.m. I can usually do this drive in just under a half hour.

-- Charles St. Amand, managing editor

Posted by The Sun Newsroom at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)