A utility truck drives through the center early on Sunday morning, Oct. 30. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
 

A tree stretches the power lines on Still River Road.
 

Chef Paul Correnty serves peaches at a shelter lunch on Oct. 31.
 

From left, Detective Jack Izzo, DPW Director Rich Nota, Officer Greg Newman, and DPW employee Bill Card take a break from their duties to eat lunch at the shelter at Bromfield.

Most streets of Harvard were dark at dawn this morning as the town entered its third day without power, but the lights were on at Town Hall, the elementary school, and the library, thanks to the arrival of rental generators from Baltimore yesterday afternoon. Town Hall reopened for business this morning, but the schools will remain closed for a third day and a planned hearing this evening on Vicksburg Square at Devens has been postponed a week.

Elsewhere in town, electricity had also been restored along the length of Ayer Road, from Ayer Circle to South Shaker Road by 8 p.m. last night.

Fire Chief Rick Sicard announced at noon today that 17 percent of the town now has electricity.

Helping with the effort last night were six crews from C.C. Power of Kalkaska, Michigan, along with a smattering of National Grid workers. In a brief impromptu interview Tuesday morning, Department of Public Works director Rich Nota told the Press that National Grid was predicting that 90 percent of the town would have power by Thursday evening.

According to a map distributed Tuesday to utility and tree crews, the five roads most in need of attention include: Massachusetts Avenue, Slough Road, Still River Road, Poor Farm Road, and Glenview Drive. Massachusetts Avenue near Interstate 495 remains closed, but Poor Farm Road open, though electrical crews still repairing power lines there Tuesday morning.

All electric power to Harvard arrives from a substation near the Ayer police station, Gordon Shaw, a crew chief from Lewis Trees Services, told the Pressthis morning. The company is working under contract to National Grid

Shaw compared the electrical grid in Harvard to the human nervous system. The trunk line from Ayer is the spinal cord, he said. The main branching lines are the arms and legs, and streets and private driveways are the finger and toes.

With the Ayer trunk line restored, clearing will continue along lines that serve neighborhoods. Downed lines that connect homes to the grid and other private lines will be repaired last, Shaw said. But, he added, the damage is so extensive and random that the work would not necessarily follow a logical course.

The work in town is being coordinated by fire Chief Sicard, police Chief Ed Denmark, Town Administrator Tim Bragan, and Nota. All four were closeted in a meeting this morning and unable to talk with the Press, as they prepared for a conference call with state officials.

The storm broke records throughout the state, with meteorologists reporting that snow from the surprise Saturday nor’easter left more snow on the ground than any other such October event. Harvard received 10 to 12 inches. Another record was broken when temperatures dipped below 20 degrees on Sunday night, setting a new October low for the town. National Grid reported that a record 1,500 crews were working on downed power lines in the Massachusetts alone, with 500 additional crews arriving from out of state.

The emergency shelter at the Bromfield School remained open Tuesday for meals, overnight shelter, and showers and will remain open.

At 6 a.m., school chef Paul Correnty and volunteers were already setting out coffee and muffins for breakfast. A blackboard outside the cafeteria kitchen promised a noontime lunch of assorted pizzas, tossed garden salad, and chilled peaches. Dinner at 6 p.m. includes baked Louisiana yam or local potatoes topped with either a vegetarian or meat chili. Desert is baked apple pie.

Monday night more than 300 residents signed in for a dinner of pasta and salad, amid Halloween decorations hung by Lancaster County Road resident Heidi Siegrist, her son Hunter, and friend Hannah Basnett. But only one resident slept over for the night.