With the powerful ice storm days old, a good portion of Bedford remained powerless, leaving residents unsure of when they would be able to have electricity back.

Many homes and businesses in Bedford lost power the evening of Thursday, Dec. 11. At the storm’s peak, Bedford Police Chief David Bailey said about 4,200 customers were in the dark – more than half the 8,000 homes in town, according to state records.

About half of Bedford remained in the dark as of midday Wednesday, Dec. 17, approximately 1,200 Bedford customers were still without electricity, according to PSNHnews.com.

“People may not have power until Friday in a lot of places,” said Bailey. “It isn’t just Bedford, it’s the whole southern tier of the state, and there are people a lot worse than us. They’re spread so thin, and they’re doing as much as they can.”

Roads across Bedford were closed for several days as Ron Descoteaux, Jerry Hudon, Kevin Hodgdon and Dave Boilard from the town’s Department of Public Works, and employees from Mossy Oak Landscaping, cleared fallen trees and branches.

“The clearing is going along steady but, as you can imagine, slow,” said Paul Belanger, Bedford’s assistant director of Public Works and highway superintendent on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

“We are concentrating on debris removal from our main arterial roads first then onto the subdivisions.”

The forecast for snow on Dec. 16 was expected to play a role in what workers were able to accomplish before everything got covered and frozen. “We are hoping to stay on the clearing as long as we can,” Belanger said.

To help those in need of a warm place to stay, the Bedford Emergency Operations Center opened a shelter at Bedford High School. Fliers were circulated around town and posted at stores to alert people about the shelter, in addition to mobile signs on Wallace and Joppa Hill roads.

“We’ve been running a shelter, but we haven’t had too many people going to it,” said Bailey. “When we first opened it, they were on the generator so we didn’t have the shower.”

The Bedford Emergency Operations Center closed the shelter at 3 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 16, but urges anyone still in need to go to the Red Cross Shelter at Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester. Bedford police are available to provide transportation to SNHU to any Bedford resident.

Also, unlimited bottled water and bulk water are available at the Bedford Safety Complex on Constitution Drive, as well as envrio logs available for heating (two bundles per household).

The high school was not the only place sheltering residents from the cold. Bedford Public Library has seen a lot of foot traffic from those seeking everything from warmth to wireless Internet access, according to Kersten Matera, a reference librarian. The library normally doesn’t have a waiting list for its seven public computers, but on Sunday there was a line of 20 people, Matera said. On Dec. 15, she noticed an influx of about a dozen dislocated business types armed with laptops. But some people simply wanted warmth.

“There were two staff people who came in (Sunday) and hung out,” Matera said. “They weren’t on the schedule, but they were keeping warm.”

Also trying to keep warm were the animals at The Educational Farm at Joppa Hill, as well as their caretaker Rich Parent and his daughter, Nicole.

“There’s no lights, no water and no heat, but we have a generator for the milking machines,” said Parent on Monday, Dec. 15, as he brought in bottled water.

“Usually, we have a pellet stove, but it’s not working. It runs on electricity. Otherwise, all the animals are happy and healthy.” Bailey said residents should be cautious about how they heat their homes during the blackout, and at other times during the winter months.

“The fire chief was concerned with the way people were using heaters and using fireplaces that haven’t been used in years,” said Bailey, who said it was difficult to stay in touch with residents who were without power. “The people you want to get the message to don’t get the power. So we put fliers in the restaurants, supermarkets and such to tell them what we have to offer.”

For the most part, Bailey said residents have been understanding of the inconvenience. Not knowing when residents will have power has been one of the most difficult aspects of the storm, said Bailey.

“When exactly their power is coming on, that’s not up to us. If it comes on sooner than the end of the week, you’re pleasantly surprised,” Bailey said. “Public Services doesn’t want to make promises they can’t keep.”

Residents in need of help may continue to call the Police Department at 472-5113.

– Stephen Beale and Susan Clark contributed to this story.