Barry Wills spent 60 to 70 hours on the job last week clearing downed trees and limbs that had crashed into homes and brought down power lines during back-to-back nor’easters.
Then a blizzard hit Monday and Tuesday so Wills, 35, switched gears to plow snow in Foxborough.
“I get tired,’’ said Wills, a father of two who lives in North Attleborough. “Tuesday morning I was up at 6 plowing and I got home 5 o’clock Wednesday morning.’’
March is shaping up to be a month of marathon shifts for utility crews, tree workers, and snowplow operators, who have been working overtime to clean up after three major storms that struck between March 2 and Tuesday.
The major utilities in eastern Massachusetts had line workers on the job 16 hours per day to restore electricity. Some municipal public works departments said they had staff clearing snow throughout this week’s blizzard.
At Tree Tech Inc. in Foxborough, where Wills works as an arborist, some employees put in more than 100 hours last week, said Andy Felix, the company president.
“It’s been a crazy two weeks,’’ said Felix. “I’ve been in business for myself for 32 years and this has been the heaviest demand ever.’’
Tree Tech’s office in Foxborough lost power for several days during the first nor’easter so the company forwarded calls to a cellphone belonging to Felix’s wife, Meagon.
“My wife received hundreds of phone calls,’’ he said. “Literally there were people crying on the phone and we just felt so bad.’’
One employee, who is assigned to a crew that helps Eversource clear trees, worked 115 hours and then headed to Killington, Vt., on Saturday to be an usher at the wedding of Felix’s daughter, Lindsay.
“I’m just so grateful,’’ Felix said. “I can’t say enough good things about the people who work here. They really have been true first responders.’’
In Billerica, where 25.6 inches of snow fell during the latest storm, Highway Superintendent Edward Tierney said about 20 employees have been logging 60 to 70 hours of overtime in the past two weeks.
The town set aside $420,000 this year to remove snow and ice, but so far the department has spent more than $1 million, Tierney said.
“It’s been awful, it really has,’’ he said. “It’s been exhausting for these guys and the equipment is taking a beating too.’’
Tierney said he drinks Red Bull to keep going. Workers catch some rest in the break room at the Department of Public Works, where couches, pillows, and blankets are available.
“It looks like a bunker,’’ he said.
Eversource, which deployed thousands of workers to restore power after each storm, rented a recreational vehicle during the blizzard to try to improve working conditions for employees who guard downed wires until crews arrived to make repairs, said Michael Durand, a spokesman for the utility.
Stocked with drinks and snacks, the RV traveled the South Shore and Cape Cod offering workers a place to warm up and use the bathroom during their shift, he said.
“I would venture to say the rest facilities were probably the most welcome,’’ said Durand.
Eversource brought in utility crews from Canada, Florida, Indiana, and Louisiana to get the power back on, he said. The company had so many workers on Cape Cod, Durand said, that hotel rooms became difficult to find.
National Grid also brought in reinforcements to ease the workload, summoning workers from 15 states and Canada, said Bob Kievra, a spokesman. By the time the blizzard arrived, the utility said it had 456 line crews and 211 tree crews in Massachusetts.
Work for tree crews is expected to remain steady as homeowners look for people to remove damaged trees and limbs and cut down others that they worry could cause problems in future storms.
On Thursday afternoon, Wills and his colleagues, Anthony Fertitta, 24, and Cam Felix, 25, cleared a spruce tree in Newton that had fallen onto a neighbor’s property and nearly crashed into the door. It was their fourth job of the day.
“We were just about getting caught up and we were hit with another wave of storms,’’ said Wills.
In Wilmington, public works Director Michael Woods said some of his workers went on duty at 4 a.m. Tuesday and stayed on the job until 4 p.m. Wednesday to clear snow from town streets.
“It’s certainly a lesson in endurance for these folks,’’ said Woods.
Their spirits were buoyed, however, by the longer days from daylight saving time and the arrival of spring on Tuesday, he said. Although, the National Weather Service is eyeing a potential coastal storm on Tuesday — that, with luck, might blow out to sea.
“Everyone can see the end in sight,’’ Woods said. “It’s easier to take than if it was January.’’
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi.
