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The Lion of Winter Roars On

Brutal blast had us suffering again -- and counting the days to spring
By ROBERT MILLS, Sun Staff

PLANTS SURVIVED: Tuesday's winter blast made a long night for David Dumaresq, who ran a generator to keep greenhouses heated after power was lost at Brox Farms in Dracut., SUN / JULIA MALAKIE

DRACUT -- David Dumaresq decided to work late at Brox Farm Tuesday night, even with a nagging cold, and while the move ended up keeping him awake most of the night, it probably saved him a lot of money.

Dumaresq, 32, who lives about a quarter-mile from the farm on Route 113, said he likely would have lost thousands of dollars in plants growing in greenhouses on the farm had he not been there when a powerful storm knocked out power a little after 9 p.m.

Brox Farm and the three 8,000-square-foot greenhouses, where Dumaresq is already growing flowers and vegetables for the spring, were among about 1,900 buildings left in the dark in Dracut, and among roughly 3,500 that lost power in the area.

The brutal blast brought high winds and virtually zero visibility to the area, knocking down trees and power lines, and finally letting up a little after midnight.

But Dumaresq's problems were only starting.

While about 1,200 of the customers who lost power in Dracut had it back by about 12:30 a.m., the farm and approximately 700 other customers on the Dracut and Methuen line were without lights until around 10:45 yesterday morning, MassElectric spokeswoman Jackie Barry said.

For Dumaresq, the most important moments came right after the lights went out.

With temperatures in the teens and winds blowing around 30 mph, he said it would have taken only about 10 more minutes for temperatures in the greenhouses to drop enough to damage plants.

Dumaresq, who leases the greenhouses from the Brox family and sells the plants at the farmstand there, said that since he was doing seed orders in the greenhouse -- where he stayed since he thought the heat could help his cold -- he was able to quickly head outside and grab a generator from a storage area.

Dressed lightly since he didn't plan on being in the elements, it took Dumaresq about 15 minutes to get the generator inside and hooked up to heating systems. Concerned gas would run out too quickly, he shut off everything else that drained power.

Once he got the generator working, his mere 5-gallon supply of gas made him nervous, so he was unable to get to sleep until about 2:30 a.m.

He got only two or three hours of sleep before waking again to go back and check on things. Once the sun came up temperatures in one greenhouse soared to 100 degrees -- which is also a problem. At that point, he had to turn off the heaters and turn on exhaust fans.

"I'm just really glad I wasn't more than 10 minutes away." he said last night. “With such low temperatures and such high winds you have very little time to react before things start to freeze up.”

In the end, despite lack of sleep and a night that surely didn't help his cold, Dumaresq and the roughly 50,000 plants, including geraniums, impatiens, and several kinds of perennials, all made it through unscathed.

Falling wires and falling trees caused other outages in Lowell, where about 1,200 people lost power until a little after midnight, and another 100 were without power until last night, MassElectric's Barry said.

About 450 customers in Tewskbury lost power from 8 p.m. Tuesday to 5:30 a.m. yesterday, she said.

The storm only dumped 5 to 6 inches of snow over the area, including a reported 6.2 inches in Billerica, 6 inches in Pepperell, 5.5 inches in Ayer, 5.4 inches in Dunstable, and 4 inches in Westford, according to the National Weather Service.

Nevertheless, sustained winds of 25 to 30 mph and gusts reported as high as 51 mph in Bedford blew down trees throughout the region, knocking out power and causing destruction.

Bonnie Mays and her 17-year-old daughter, Brittany, were watching television in their home at 9 Sunset Road in Dracut when an 80-foot white pine tree was blown onto the house. Some of its branches broke through the living-room ceiling over their heads.

The Mays family, including Bonnie Mays' husband, A. Michael, 14-year-old daughter Kelley, and their dog, stayed with neighbors Tuesday night, and planned to do so again last night.

Mays said their homeowner's insurance would help the family buy a mobile home they will live in while repairs are made to their house, which suffered major damage. The tree sank roughly 6 feet into the attic and smashed out parts of their ceiling.

“We have a dog so we have to get a mobile home because we can't take it into an apartment or hotel, even though it would be nice and cushy,” Mays said last night.

Now that most residents have dug out from Tuesday's storm, meteorologists with the National Weather Service are tracking another storm that has the potential to bring significant snow to the region tomorrow night or Saturday, NWS meteorologist Mike Jackson said.

Forecasters are not yet able to say how much snow the storm will bring -- it could be a little or a lot -- but Jackson said he's reasonably sure some snow will fall.

But even if the storm packs some power, it will not rival January's blizzard, he said.


Robert Mills' e-mail address is rmills@lowellsun.com.