Tuesday Dawns, but Irene Damage Lingers

Entering Tuesday, much of Wrentham still does not have power as the effects of Tropical Storm Irene linger.

Wrentham Fire Department Chief Jay McMorrow estimated that 40 percent of town has power. He said there had been some communications with utility company National Grid.

"They're stretched to the limit," he said. "They identified Wrentham, Plainville and Franklin as having special damage — they're bringing in crews to deal with some of the more remote lines."

McMorrow said he was originally advised that it may take three to five days for complete power restoration.

"The high school is scheduled to start Thursday, but they still don't have power," he said. "Neither does the Developmental Center."

McMorrow said road-clearing work remains.

"Six streets are still closed because of wires and trees," he said. "We were able to get Route 121 open at 3 this morning after it had been closed because of a pole down."

McMorrow said water has been made available to those who need it by the fire department.

"A large portion of West Wrentham is reliant on well water," he said. "Yesterday, Station 2 [in West Wrentham] was manned, but today it will not be — we're trying to give some of our guys a break."

He advised residents affected by the outage to store and conserve as much water as they can."

Police Chief James Anderson said the town's public safety departments had gotten some calls during the storm itself, but nothing too serious.

"We had trees down," he said. "A couple of houses were hit by fallen tree limbs."

Anderson asked residents to remain patient.

"We working as hard as we can," he said.