At 9:12 on Tuesday evening, as the tail end of Isaias departed Bedford, a tree fell across Sunset Road. Eleven homes were plunged into darkness and a 48-hour saga began.
The DPW delivered saw horses, blocked the road, and notified Eversource on Wednesday morning.
According to sources, no one in the DPW’s Grounds Division is certified to touch trees tangled in power lines.
The Town is required to notify Eversource, and wait its turn for the company’s arborists and linemen to repair the damage.
An early morning photograph of the damage shows what seems to be a fairly simple problem: A fallen tree with its branches stuck in the powerlines.
It’s not clear who may have come to assess the problem early on, but the power remained off through the day. Curious about the delay on Thursday morning, The Citizen reached out to Eversource’s media relations office; Reid Lamberty said he’d look into the situation.
Two Eversource trucks out of the Waltham field office finally restored power at approximately 9:45 on Thursday evening, after residents had spent a full 48 hours without electricity.
Lamberty circled back with an apology on Friday. “It’s unfortunate that our customers were without power as long as they were. We certainly understand how difficult and frustrating it is to be without power, especially during the pandemic.
“A tree was the cause of the damage. We saw similar damage throughout our entire region. We assessed the damage and responded as quickly as we could to ensure our customers had power.
“Due to this widespread [Isaias] damage, it took our field crews longer to respond to on Sunset Road.”
It’s never smart to speak too soon. When the sun came out late Tuesday and there were no notices from Bedford’s police or fire departments, it appeared the Bedford came through Isaias pretty much unscathed.
Not so for the residents of Sunset Road.
Click this link to read the Boston Globe’s reports of Isaias’s damage across Massachusetts.
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