Facts and History of the Holden Municipal Light Department
On August 2, 2006 shortly after 5pm an unusual wind storm blew through the Chaffins area and the center of Holden. The National Weather Service identified this storm as a "derecho" which is defined as a rapidly moving windstorm comprised of a family of downburst clusters. This wild wind storm originated in the Berkshire Mountains and traveled rapidly across Massachusetts. Approximately 50 to 75 customers lost power and about 40 customers had services pulled from their homes. Many trees and limbs fell on wires and houses. Boylston and Paxton provided mutual aid and power was restored to most within 24 hours. Debris clean up continued for several weeks after.
Damage to Hendricks House Aug 2, 2006
In November 2002 the Town was hit by a powerful ice storm that caused major damage to trees, broken limbs, downed power lines and outages throughout Holden and surrounding towns. The HMLD responded with emergency crews and round-the-clock response to hundreds of trouble calls. Though extremely busy, outages were kept to a minimum as crews and office staff worked diligently to keep track of the storm and respond and fix emergencies and field calls from customers. Mutual aid crews were called in to assist in repair of storm damage.
During January 1998, HMLD responded to a call for Mutual Aid from the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative based out of Plymouth, NH. The regions of Ossipee and Colbrook, NH were hit hard by a disastrous ice storm that raised havoc across northern New England. Holden responded with a crew of 3 men and helped restore and repair lines, poles, and house services within these regions for almost a week.
 Repairing Broken Pole in the Woods NH Ice Storm
Downed Wires Ice Storm 1998. Ossipee, NH
December 11, 1992, Holden experienced one of the worst winter snow storms in history. Meteorologist call this storm "The Downslope Nor'Easter". Heavy wet snow and wind dropped approximately 32 inches of snow. Line crews from Chicopee, Braintree, Hingham, Paxton, Littleton, Boylston, Princeton and even Burlington, VT. were called in to assist with the repairs. There were many problems such as house services pulled down and large tree limbs resting on electric lines. Power was restored by December 14th, three days later.
Please check back frequently since this page is still under construction and more history and facts will be added.
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