Updated: 16 inches and counting: Blizzard blanketing quiet Acton
Acton schools and the Ripley building will be closed again Tuesday, schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter announced.
Buried, but unbowed.
Concordians fought the elements Monday — or waited them out — as the blizzard making its way up the East Coast layered the town with a fresh, thick coat of white.
The National Weather Service reported an accumulation of 16.2 inches in Acton as of 3:38 p.m. — a wallop, but less than half of the pileup at T.F. Green International Airport in Rhode Island, which broke the blizzard of ’78 record with a whopping 32.8 inches of snow as of 1 p.m.
All Acton schools and the Ripley building will be closed again Tuesday, schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter announced shortly before 7 p.m.
The Acton Police and Fire Departments had reported little drama by Monday afternoon. Municipal offices and a variety of businesses stayed shuttered during the storm.
The libraries, the Council on Aging, and the Beede Center will be open Tuesday, Communication Manager Donna McIntosh said in an email. Curbside collection will follow its regular schedule, although potentially more slowly than usual due to the snow.
Concordians of all ages (and species, apparently) got to work digging out from the heavy drifts Monday.
Bridge reader Nicole Teabo wrote, “My sister caught this video Monday morning on my back porch. She was still here because her flight to Orlando to go back home was canceled.”
In an online bulletin, Town Manager Kerry Lafleur gave a shoutout to “Public Works, public safety, and Acton Municipal Light Plant crews, who have been out since the first flakes fell to keep our primary routes clear and the power on.”
Light Plant Director Jason Bulger said by midafternoon, there had been a single electrical call, and that was unrelated to the storm.
Staff at Emerson Hospital treated some people injured in falls on Monday, but the emergency department wasn’t extra busy as of around 5:15 p.m., officials said.
In keeping with a state of emergency declared by Gov. Maura Healey ahead of the storm, Lafleur asked residents to stay off the streets to let plows do their work.
McIntosh said that all primary and secondary Acton roads should be “passable by tomorrow morning.”
She said the town received no requests for warming centers or shelters due to the storm, but can quickly open the Harvey Wheeler Community Center if needed. The Acton Free Public Library will serve as the initial warming center during its business hours.
As cleanup begins in earnest, state authorities urged people to clear snow around vehicle and furnace exhaust pipes to avoid possible carbon monoxide exposure, keep generators well-ventilated, and take breaks while shoveling.
The town continued to ask residents to stay off the roads Monday night, and to clear snow in a three-foot radius around fire hydrants, with a path from the street.
Tuesday’s school snow day will mark the third of the academic year. With no snow days, Hunter noted, the last day of school would have been June 12.
Now it will be June 17.
What does wintry Acton look like through your lens? Send your best hi-res photos and a few lines about what you saw to [email protected] or submit them via our simple newsroom contact form.
7:43 p.m. This story has been updated.
