School Cancelled Tuesday as Hurricane Sandy Turns Windham Dark

School in Windham has been cancelled for Tuesday as thousands in town cope with the impact of Hurricane Sandy.

The storm slammed Windham as expected on Monday, leaving all but 27 PSNH customers without power as of 7 p.m.

The power losses exponentially spiked starting at 12 p.m., with the first outage reports coming in near the Searles Castle area.

By the time the winds and rain picked up later in the afternoon as expected, traffic lights were out on Route 111 and Range Road, and businesses along the corridor were dark.

Of the 1,075 Liberty Utilities (formerly National Grid) customers in Windham, 564 were in the dark with no estimated time of return.

A few major incidents took place, including an accident near the intersection of Range Road and Cobbett's Pond Road. At least a dozen police cruisers and fire trucks were at the scene, but no additional information on the incident was available.

On the opposite end of town, a downed power line summoned utility workers next to Waterhouse Country Store, closing off that section of Mammoth Road.

The widespread outage situation is not new to Windham customers. Almost exactly one year ago today, during the infamous October snow storm dubbed "Snowtober," almost 100 percent of residents went without power, many for over a week.

Some residents took to Facebook to voice their displeasure with the Windham outages.

Anne Pickett said "for 'once' I'm glad we're on a Derry circuit.

Beth Venuti called the 99.45 percent of PSNH customers without power "ridiculous."

Dave Kolifrath said his generator kicked in after the power went out, and the only thing missing was cable television.

Others, such as Terri Landry Kurgan, praised the difficult job that the first responders have during major storms.

"Keep our first responders in your thoughts, "she said. "They don't get to close up shop – in fact, (they are) asked to leave their families to protect yours!"

Several residents asked whether Windham High School would have electricity in case of an emergency.

As indicated before the storm by Windham Fire Chief Tom McPherson, WHS will be used as an emergency shelter if deemed necessary by emergency management.

According to a Union Leader report on Monday afternoon, Windham resident without power could be in the dark for a while.

The paper said that power can't be restored until it is safe to do so, meaning that the high winds need to die down first.