Heavy Snow Forces Many Schools to Stay Closed

(AP/NECN: Jennifer Eagan, Leominster, Mass.) - It may seem more like a trick, but this Halloween will be a snow day for some New England students, after the heavy, wet snow created power outages across the region.

Downed trees and power problems have forced many school to keep the doors closed Monday, simply because students cannot get to class. In many cases, the schools are being used as shelters for cities and towns that are almost completely in the dark.

More than 500,000 homes and businesses across Mass. remained without power, and it could be days before all are back on line.

The storm that dropped a foot of snow in some area late Saturday into Sunday forced dozens of school closures on Monday, and prompted some communities to either postpone or cancel Halloween trick or treating.

National Grid reported more than 350,000 customers still without power Monday, with central Massachusetts the hardest hit. Western
Massachusetts Electric Co. still had about 117,000 without power with near blackout conditions in Agawam, Easthampton and Greenfield.

NStar was down to 46,000 outages Monday, with the Framingham, Waltham and Walpole areas the hardest hit.

The state Emergency Management Agency said about 800 people spent the night in 38 shelters across the state.

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