Foxborough Fire Chief: Town Currently Dealing with Downed Trees, Power Outages from Hurricane Sandy

NOTE: Update from Foxborough Fire Chief Roger Hatfield came just after 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29.

Foxborough Fire Chief Roger Hatfield said the town is handling Hurricane Sandy much better than it did Tropical Storm Irene and "Snowtober" but there are still power outages and downed trees to deal with as of 5:30 p.m. Monday.

"We are keeping up with [Hurricane Sandy] that’s for sure," Hatfield said in a phone interview with Foxborough Patch Monday evening. ... "It’s not as bad as it could have been. I think we’ve done pretty well so far but we are not out of the woods yet."

Hatfield said the town is currently dealing with power outages and downed trees, but could not report as of 5:30 p.m. what percentage of the community was without power. However, he did continue to stress the town is in much better shape than it was during Tropical Storm Irene last August.

"We are waiting to get an update on what the actual percentage of our town is without power," Hatfield said. ... "It’s not anywhere near what it was last year."

National Grid's power outage map on its website is reporting as of 6:22 p.m. Monday there are 28 outages reported in Foxborough affecting 2,997 customers. There is currently no ETA on restoration in town because the utility company is assessing the condition of the outages, according to its website.

"We are getting good information from Tom Coughlin of National Grid," Hatfield said. ... "National Grid can’t put guys in buckets until the wind conditions drop below 30 mph."

Hatfield added the town's main concern at this point is addressing the heavily impacted areas of town – Mechanic and Lane streets, Main Street at Colony Road and Pleasant Street.

"We’ve got three trees down that have taken power lines on Mechanic and Lane streets," Hatfield said. "Also [tree down] on Pleasant Street and at Main Street and Colony Road. Those three areas are our big issues."

Other notable damage aroud town, according to Hatfield:

• A section of roof blew off of Chace Lumber storage area on Washington Street
• A tree came down onto an apartment building at Walnut Park Apartments on 12 Fuller Rd.
• A couple of trees came down on houses and three trees came down on power lines.

Hatfield reported none of the identified areas are expected to present any significant challenges to the town's crews clearing the debris.

"I think the areas that are being impacted are not critically severe from what I can tell but until National Grid can take a look at it we won’t know its true impact," Hatfield said.

There's still another hour or so left of higher wind conditions before Sandy begins to slow down in the area, according to Hatfield. But so far, the town is in manageable shape.

"From driving around town, we are doing much better than we did last year," Hatfield said.

This article will be updated.