New Hampshire Storm Brings, School Closures, Power Outages

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(TNS) – A powerful spring storm that barreled into New Hampshire Wednesday night left more than 175,000 households without power at its peak, closed schools and courthouses, and led to dangerous crashes on state roadways.

With hundreds of utility crews responding throughout the day Thursday, the total number of outages began dropping slowly by evening.

Eversource, the state’s largest electric company, reported that a peak of about 112,000 customers were affected at midafternoon Thursday. More than 100,000 customers were still without power by evening.

Communities with significant outages included Barrington, Gilford, Londonderry and Wakefield. In Derry, 4,585 were without power in the morning, but that had dropped to about 2,500 by evening.

Eversource said it had restored nearly 91,000 customers since Wednesday night. The company said it had 800 crews out Thursday assessing damage, clearing roads and repairing lines brought down by the heavy, wet snow on trees and branches. Hundreds of additional crews were on their way to New Hampshire to help.

New Hampshire Electric Co-op was reporting about 34,000 households were still without power Thursday evening, with significant outages in Alton, Barnstead, Chester, Deerfield, Jackson, Lempster, New Durham, Nottingham, Raymond and Sandown.

About 15,000 customers of Unitil were without power at midday, including about 1,200 in Concord. The total number was down to about 10,000 customers Thursday evening.

Liberty Utilities still had about 3,000 customers without power in the Salem and Pelham areas Thursday evening.

Closings and crashes

Hundreds of schools and day care centers were closed statewide. The storm closed town offices, public libraries and community centers.

The circuit courts in Goffstown and Dover were closed all day due to power outages, while other courthouses in Brentwood, Concord, Keene, Nashua and Newport closed early.

But Manchester-Boston Regional Airport seemed to be taking the storm in stride, with no flight delays reported online.

Speeding truck drivers were blamed for several serious crashes during the storm, including one that closed the Everett Turnpike in Nashua for five hours.

As the storm began Wednesday evening with snow and freezing rain, a fully loaded tractor-trailer rolled over on I-89 southbound in Warner, leading State Police to close the travel lane of the highway for several hours.

The driver, Harprit Sidhu, 42, of Brampton, Ontario, was not injured, but was charged with driving too fast for the existing road conditions, according to a news release from State Police. Shortly before the crash, the truck had passed a state trooper “at a high rate of speed despite snowy road conditions,” officials said.

Officials said the crash happened around 8:40 p.m.

Thursday morning, the southbound Everett Turnpike in Nashua had to be closed for five hours after the driver of a flatbed truck lost control of his vehicle and it crashed into a structure bearing an overhead sign.

State troopers were called around 6:30 a.m. to the area of Exit 4, where they found the truck, carrying a dumpster, had crashed into the sign structure, making it unstable and unsafe to drive under, according to a news release.

The truck driver, Jonathan Soto , 36, of Worcester, Mass., suffered minor injuries. He was cited for negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and officials said he was driving too fast for the road conditions.

Crews from the state Department of Transportation and others worked for hours to remove the damaged sign and flatbed truck from the roadway. The southbound turnpike was reopened around 11:30 a.m.

Later Thursday morning, another truck driver was cited for driving too fast for road conditions after his vehicle jackknifed on I-93 southbound in Salem and crashed into another tractor-trailer.

State Police were called to a report of a crash around 9:15 a.m. and found the two tractor-trailers “entangled, with one on its side, off the road and in the grass median,” according to a news release.

Investigators found that a 2023 Freightliner driven by Brian Houle, 63, of Hubbardston, Mass., had passed a second tractor-trailer unit on the right and drifted into the breakdown lane. That’s when it jackknifed and crashed into a 2022 Freightliner driven by Frederick Kwayisi, 44, of Salisbury.

Both trucks went off the roadway and came to a rest in the median. No one was injured, and the crash did not impede traffic, State Police said, but Houle was cited for driving too fast for the road conditions.

Stay safe

As heavy snow and strong winds buffeted much of the state Thursday morning, emergency management officials reminded residents of important safety measures to take during a storm:

Never run a generator indoors. And only use a generator that has been wired to the house electrical service by a professional electrician.

If you come across downed wires, stay away and call 911.

The latest road conditions can be found at: newengland511.org.

Clear all snow and ice from your car, including the roof, around lights, and on license plates before traveling.

In a statement, Robert Buxton , director of Homeland security and Emergency Management, advised, “If you haven’t lost power yet, take time to prepare you and your family for a possible outage as the storm continues.”

To report a power outage, call your electric company:

Eversource 1-800-662-7764

Liberty Utilities 1-855-349-9455

NH Electric Co-Op 1-800-343-6432

Unitil 1-888-301-7700

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