A sense of humor helps
On East Valentine Street in Westbrook, David Schuster and Bill Langlais were working Tuesday morning to cut up a tree that had fallen on a car, smashing the driver’s side window and denting the roof.
Schuster, who lives in the apartment owned by Langlais’ fiancae, said he was home Monday and heard a gust of wind that shook the entire house. He looked outside and saw the tree on top of the car.
As they worked in the rain to clear the tree, Langlais and Schuster tried to keep a bright view on things.
“So we’re trying to sell the firewood to help pay for the car,” joked Langlais.
Schuster said he felt lucky because, despite the tree falling on the car, he only lost his cable throughout the entire ordeal. Many in Westbrook had it worse.
So he kept an upbeat attitude.
“What else can you do?” he asked.
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Time to make the doughnuts …
Local estaurants and food service providers were busier than normal because many people in Westbrook didn’t have power and couldn’t cook for themselves or their families.
The Dunkin’ Donuts on Main Street in Westbrook was particularly busy. According to store manager Sandy Gummoe, the rush started in the afternoon Monday and never stopped.
“A lot of Westbrook has lost electricity, so everybody is coming here to get food,” she said.
Compounding the increased business, other Dunkin’ Donuts stores workers were coming to the Westbrook store for supplies because their power had gone out and they couldn’t bake any doughnuts or bagels or cookies.
Indeed, by 11 a.m. Tuesday, the shelves of the Westbrook Dunkin’ Donuts were practically bare. There were no doughnuts whatsoever, about a dozen bagels, three muffins and about a dozen cookies. Gummoe said to keep up the staff had been baking constantly since 3 a.m. Tuesday.
John McDonald, owner of the Good Things Variety on Saco Street, said Monday and Tuesday are usually slow days, but not this week. Tuesday at around lunchtime he was getting regular calls for deli orders.
“I expect today to be busy,” he said.
The variety store had closed Monday morning after losing power. McDonald said he brought in generators Tuesday morning so he could open up for the neighborhood.
“We wanted to get open because we knew people in the neighborhood were hungry,” said McDonald.
The power came on at about noon, said McDonald, not long after he turned the computers on with the generators. The store didn’t have any meatballs unthawed yet for meatball subs, but it had plenty of cold cuts.
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