"Like cement": Ashby digs out of heavy snow after March nor'easter
ASHBY - The Central Massachusetts town of Ashby was blanketed with snow during Tuesday's nor'easter. Approximately 30" fell there.
"You live in New England you're supposed to have stuff like this," said Peter Shattuck, who was clearing snow with a skid steer. "It's not bad if you have the right equipment."
With the consistency of the snow, shoveling was a challenge. "Like cement," said Bertha Braneff. "It's really bad."
Ray Grimsley used his snow blower to help neighbors who wouldn't be cleared out without him. "It's very tough. It's very heavy. It was a very wet snow," Grimsley said. "It's very difficult, but with the proper equipment, it works."
The storm knocked out power to the entire town. Crews were working to restore it on Wednesday, reconnecting a main line and then getting to smaller outages, which has its challenges.
"Working with the actual electricity and working under all the trees that still have snow on them," said utility worker Noah Leblonde. "You got snow falling on you, you got trees still coming down."
Meteorologist Andrew Desrosiers was carefully recording the depth of the snow throughout the storm and reporting to the National Weather Service for verification. "Ashby usually is the jackpot," Desrosiers said. "This was the quite the storm to have. It just came down in dumps."
Unitil said power was restored to 60% of the town by Wednesday night.