Politics & Government

City Update on the Storm's Impact

Here is the latest information on Hurricane Sandy's impact on Melrose.

Here's the latest information on Hurricane Sandy's impact on Melrose, according to a press statement from the city:

Power

  • There are 311 National Grid accounts (3 percent of households) without power in Melrose, including 10 isolated areas.
  • National Grid has a crew in Melrose, and it is prioritizing the larger outages but is aware of all residential outages.
  • Anyone with a medical necessity (dialysis machine, Lifeline) will be given priority. Anyone in that situation should call the Melrose Fire Department at 781-979-4404, which will relay the information to National Grid.
  • Patrol officers are checking every street for downed power lines and calling them in.
  • National Grid has responsibility for downed power lines; they are relieving our police and fire details with their own crews. If their people aren’t available, the mayor has requested that they pay for the detail.
  • Today, National Grid will see to it that all downed power lines have a crew watching them at 2 p.m., when school gets out. They fully anticipate that there will be no more downed wires by tonight.
  • Residents who are without power can call 1-800-322-3223 for information.

Trees

Find out what's happening in Melrosewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Melrose Department of Public Works Director John Scenna anticipates that all city trees will be cleared by the end of the week.
  • DPW has 3-5 crews working at all times.
  • A number of city trees are down. Five cannot be removed without assistance from National Grid. Operations Director Peter Pietrantonio from Melrose DPW will touch base with the involved homeowners at least once a day to update them.
  • Trees on private property are the homeowner’s responsibility.
  • Street sweeping will resume Wednesday.
  • DPW will pick up yard waste next week and the following week, so homeowners will have three weeks to dispose of branches and other debris.
  • The City Yard will be open Saturday and Sunday for yard waste disposal from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.


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