Visitors to Willard’s Farm on Oct. 30 had to dig pumpkins and gourds out of the snow before purchasing. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

For a good indication of which businesses in Harvard suffered the most from the recent power outage, follow the melting ice cream. The Harvard General Store, closed for four days, and Westward Orchards and Harvard Bowling Lanes, both closed for three days, all threw out ice cream that had thawed when their commercial freezers lost power. Tony Graceffa of Harvard Bowling Lanes said his ten or 11 large ice cream cakes become "a mound of chocolate, oozing out [of the freezer] like Mount Vesuvius."

The closed stores lost thousands of dollars in revenue. Graceffa was particularly exasperated by the power outage because, he said, a good portion of his customer base, school-age children, had some unexpected free time on their hands.

The extent to which local businesses suffered after the freak October snowfall depended largely on the type of business rather than on the presence or absence of a generator. No one reported owning a generator that was up to the task of powering their business except Harvard Outdoor Power Equipment, which opened on Monday on its own generator. That day the store sold out all the other generators it had in stock.

The Harvard General Store and Westward Orchards had back-up generators, which helped save some perishable food in smaller freezers and refrigerators, but which did not have sufficient capacity to run the large freezers and refrigerated display cases. Graceffa said he has not considered investing in a generator because the bowling lanes run on 220 volts.

A number of businesses stayed open during the outage. Stephen Dodge of Mill Road Tire & Auto said people dropped off cars to be repaired while the power was still out. Although the garage rigged up a generator from a gas-powered welder, it wasn't powerful enough to run the heavy machinery, Dodge said. Enabled by the relatively warm weather, however, mechanics were able to do about 15 percent of their work outside to take advantage of natural light, he said.

The warm weather also helped Harvard Kennels, another local business able to stay open in the dark. When asked whether the lack of heat affected the animals, Shandra Whittemore, an employee, responded that Keagan, a whippet, had to stay in his pajamas. Apparently the other kennel residents did just fine in their own fur. Harvard Kennels brought out its manual credit card machine and business was slightly better than usual, employees report. Without being able to reach them by phone, a couple of local residents optimistically dropped by the kennels and were able to deposit their pets before heading to a hotel for the duration of the outage.

For those residents working from home, lack of internet and phone was the worst consequence of the storm, problems that could be solved by changing location. Leslie Bunnell of Bunnell Design camped out at Acton Library with her 7- and 11-year-olds on Wednesday and spent a less productive Thursday at an area Barnes and Noble, which had only spotty wireless service.

Renée Senes of Senes and Chwalek Financial Advisors was able to keep going all four workdays that her power was out, meeting with clients in her home or theirs and doing the work that required internet access at Starbucks. She tried to call clients from her functioning landline, but was not always able to reach them if they had portable phones. After power was restored, she invested in a smartphone in anticipation of the next storm.

Even for home businesses, generators did not seem to help. Bunnell owns a generator and Senes' electrician, Ben Bogen of Bogen Electrical, brought her one on Wednesday, but neither woman was able to rely on her computer and internet access until the power came back.

Despite hassles and lost revenue, owners in Harvard mostly took the storm in stride. "Yes, we lost some money because of the outage, but we've already moved on. That's business!" wrote Abbe Alpert of Gingersnap Bakery who had several large carrot cakes in the oven when she lost power. They came out, in the dark, perfectly, Alpert said.

Two people interviewed for this article focused on a positive aspect of working during the outage: a renewed sense of community. Senes had to call clients she normally emails, and she found she enjoyed this much more personal connection, bypassing the sound-bite quality of email correspondence.

Amy Bernhardt of The Harvard General Store had a similar experience. Because calls to the store were forwarded to her personal cellphone, she found herself talking to a number of people in the community who had moved into hotels until power was restored. As she gave them daily updates on the state of the town, she said it was nice to feel this sense of community during a time that can be isolating.