Heavy Snow Brings Down Tree Limbs, Power Lines

(NECN: Brian Burnell, Southampton, Mass.) - Power crews from Connecticut headed north into Western Massachusetts last night and today to help restore electricity to thousands of people. Heavy snow brought down tree limbs and power lines.

Heavy, wet snow... as much as 15 inches in some places fell on western Massachusetts wreaking a fair amount of havoc. Easthampton and Southampton were hardest hit in terms of power outages. More than 2,000 customers were without power in Easthampton. In Southampton, the numbers was just under that. Region-wide more than 13,000 lost the lights overnight.

Bob Daysh, Easthampton, MA: "Got up at 4:00 this morning. Had no power whatsoever and then at 6:30 it came back on and then at 9:00 everything went. The circuit here blew out in the road and we had a big, blue surge and flash and we haven't had power since that time. About 9, 9:15."

It's the same story all over and crews are working to get everyone's power back on. People around here dealt with the effects of the storm from last night right through today.

Shiela Bean, Southampton, MA: "There was a division one basketball game in Holyoke and driving home it was very trecherous and we had electricity on and off last night and this is what we have. And this is seriously heavy snow. Very, very heavy."

Here's a good illustration of what we're talking about. What the real problem is. Wet, heavy snow... heavy enough to bend over these birch trees. Heavy enough to break off limbs. We've already shown you some of those that took down some power lines. People in Easthampton and Southampton especially without power for a good portion of the night.

And with the dawn comes the cleanup. Carol Dziok got her kids out to help. And Anna may have more work to do before the day is done. She's a basketball player and, as we've already heard, its tournament time.

Anna Dziok, Southampton, MA: "Is there still going to be practice? We don't know yet because school's down so. Tournament started, right? Yeah. How are you guys doing so far? Good. We won our first game. And would you rather go to practice or would you rather not have to go to practice? Well, if we're going do better we need to practice so I think it would be better."

Hear that, coach?

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