Ice does same thing to area trees, wires, schools, roads

HOLLIS – It took Butch Ames two hours to drive the 12 miles from his home on Old Milford Road in Brookline to the Hollis Pharmacy on Monday morning, 120 minutes of sheer frustration.

“I wish I’d had a helicopter. I would have been here two hours ago,” the round-faced, bearded Ames said while waiting his turn at the pharmacy counter.

Ames, who was doing a routine errand, said he headed into Pepperell, Mass., looking for a safe route to the center of town, with Route 130 – the main artery between Hollis and Brookline – still closed as a result of damage from last week’s ice storm.

An hour later he was forced to turn around, the result of downed trees and wires.

“It took me an hour to get to Rocky Pond Road and here,” Ames said, clutching his purchase and retelling his adventure to the pharmacy clerk, who gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

“Rocky Pond Road was shut down. There were wires everywhere,” he said.

Route 130, between Route 122 and the Brookline border, was closed until late Monday afternoon.

“There are trees, telephone poles, wires there,” Police Chief Russell Ux said earlier Monday. “It’s not passable.”

Elsewhere west of Nashua, the stories were the same, as the scope of the ice damage continued to hit home.

Schools throughout the region remain closed today – Mascenic School District will not reopen until after the Christmas holidays – due to the number of streets that remain blocked and residents without power in the area.

Roads aren’t the only safety hazard, either.

Public safety officials have been warning against using generators or propane and kerosene heaters indoors because they produce carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless, and potentially lethal substance.

It’s a warning that Hollis pharmacist Vahrij Manoukian, owner and operator of the Hollis Pharmacy and chairman of the town Board of Selectmen, is heeding after a close call Sunday, when he moved two propane gas space heaters into his store.

The pharmacist, who serves as the selectmen’s representative to the town’s Emergency Operations Center, wanted to take the chill out of the air and planned to use the heaters briefly.

“It was 33, 34 degrees in here, and I was afraid the pipes would freeze,” Manoukian said Monday, standing at the pharmacy counter and waiting on customers. “We were shivering in here.”

Fortunately, Don McCoy, the town’s emergency management director, made an impromptu stop at the pharmacy.

“He had problems, no power, and I told him I had a small generator, good to run a computer,” McCoy said. “He couldn’t dispense medications to the elderly since it was all in the computer.”

McCoy said the first things he saw when he entered the store were the two propane heaters, both placed on the tiled floor.

“I went back to the fire station and asked them to get the CO meter and check it out,” McCoy said, adding that the levels of carbon monoxide near the heaters was more than twice as high as what is considered acceptable.

McCoy said the heaters were disconnected, and the retail space was “ventilated.”

Manoukian, the only person in the store at the time, was unharmed.

“If they hadn’t come down, you wouldn’t be talking to me now,” he said.

He said he bought the heaters to stay warm when tailgating at New England Patriots games.

“You can’t put propane and kerosene in your house. Carbon monoxide is a silent killer,” Manoukian said. “You pass out and that’s it.”

McCoy noted that the only storm-related death in New Hampshire as of Monday afternoon, was the result of carbon monoxide poisoning.

He also stressed that generators should never be operated in a garages or under decks.

County Stores, a hardware store in Edgewood Plaza on Nashua Street in Milford, is expecting the arrival of 300 generators this morning. Owner Jimmy Infanti said he will sell 100 of them, while the other 200 are being picked up by other distributors for sale at their stores. The store was taking advance orders Monday.

Generators have been in short supply since shortly after the ice storm hit. Infanti said one tractor-trailor is bringing them up from the South.

Like all hardware stores, County Stores has been beseiged by people trying to cope without power. Despite that, Infanti said, “I thought they’d have lost their patience by now, but they have been really great. They’ve been sharing – saying, ‘I’ve have an extra gas can, you can have it’.”

The pharmacist, who serves as the selectmen’s representative to the town’s Emergency Operations Center, wanted to take the chill out of the air and planned to use the heaters briefly.

“It was 33, 34 degrees in here, and I was afraid the pipes would freeze,” Manoukian said Monday, standing at the pharmacy counter and waiting on customers. “We were shivering in here.”

Fortunately, Don McCoy, the town’s emergency management director, made an impromptu stop at the pharmacy.

“He had problems, no power, and I told him I had a small generator, good to run a computer,” McCoy said. “He couldn’t dispense medications to the elderly since it was all in the computer.”

McCoy said the first things he saw when he entered the store were the two propane heaters, both placed on the tiled floor.

“I went back to the fire station and asked them to get the CO meter and check it out,” McCoy said, adding that the levels of carbon monoxide near the heaters was more than twice as high as what is considered acceptable.

McCoy said the heaters were disconnected, and the retail space was “ventilated.”

Manoukian, the only person in the store at the time, was unharmed.

“If they hadn’t come down, you wouldn’t be talking to me now,” he said.

He said he bought the heaters to stay warm when tailgating at New England Patriots games.

“You can’t put propane and kerosene in your house. Carbon monoxide is a silent killer,” Manoukian said. “You pass out and that’s it.”

McCoy noted that the only storm-related death in New Hampshire as of Monday afternoon, was the result of carbon monoxide poisoning.

He also stressed that generators should never be operated in a garages or under decks.

County Stores, a hardware store in Edgewood Plaza on Nashua Street in Milford, is expecting the arrival of 300 generators this morning. Owner Jimmy Infanti said he will sell 100 of them, while the other 200 are being picked up by other distributors for sale at their stores. The store was taking advance orders Monday.

Generators have been in short supply since shortly after the ice storm hit. Infanti said one tractor-trailor is bringing them up from the South.

Like all hardware stores, County Stores has been beseiged by people trying to cope without power. Despite that, Infanti said, “I thought they’d have lost their patience by now, but they have been really great. They’ve been sharing – saying, ‘I’ve have an extra gas can, you can have it’.”