City Escapes Sandy's Wrath

Life is slowly returning to normal in Portsmouth on Tuesday morning as Hurricane Sandy weakens and is forecast to have less wind and leave lots of heavy rain in its wake.

City Manager John Bohenko announced that all city offices and facilities, including City Hall, the Portsmouth Public Library, the new Connie Bean Recreation Center and the Spinnaker Point Recreation Center were open after they were closed on Monday at 4 p.m.

Portsmouth students also returned to school on Tuesday following a two-hour delay. While some New Hampshire communities still have thousands of people without power on Tuesday morning, the Public Service of New Hampshire storm center reported there were just 150 Portsmouth customers waiting for their lights to come back on.

At the height of Sandy's high winds that reached up to 60 miles per hour, there were about 389 Portsmouth PSNH customers without power. The North Hampton Elementary School emergency shelter that was set up for Seacoast area residents on Monday was also closed on Tuesday morning.

City public works department crews were busy cleaning up fallen tree branches and debris that Sandy knocked down on several neighborhood streets and PSNH line crews were repairing some downed wires to restore power to those affected customers.

Downtown Portsmouth, which one Breaking New Grounds worker said Monday resembled a ghost town on Monday, also saw more people on Tuesday as they resumed their normal work routines.