On December 12, 2008 at approximately 0700 AM Massachusetts and New Hampshire Municipal Utilities activated the Northeast Public Power Association Mutual Aid.
This act was a result of the devastation which occurred after a freak Ice Storm ravaged several sister municipals and killed power to a record number of homes.
From Pascoag, Chris Piccardi (General Foreman) and James Barrentine 2nd Class lineman for Pascoag Utility District responded to the Town of West Boylston which has approximately 3,500 customers who were without power. Chris and James left on mutual aid on the morning of December 12th, 2008 and they were relieved by two other members of Pascoag on December 16th, 2008.
The second crew to arrive and relieve the first crew was Richard Jenks, 1st Class lineman and John Blodgett, System Technician. They departed Pascoag on the morning of December 16th and were released on the morning of December 18th from the town because power had been restored fully to all residents.
December 19th, 2008 Holden Massachusetts a town which serves approximately 7,200 customers still had not restored power to a large part of their customers due to the severity of the damage that the ice covered trees had caused. Holden Electric was still searching for Electric crews to aid in the restoration of their system so that they could restore all their customers before Christmas.
Pascoag Utility District responded once again by sending a crew to aid in the process. William Guertin, Assistant General Manager and Chris Piccardi, General Foreman responded on the morning of December 20th, 2008. The crew work until the morning of Christmas Eve day before they were released to come home.
At the time of the departure, each resident of the Town of Holden Massachusetts had their power restored before Christmas.