Over 200,000 homes across Massachusetts are without power after a late night storm with high winds knocked down power lines and trees, officials said.
As of 11:32 a.m., the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency listed 217,441 customers without power, with the highest concentrations being in Plymouth and Essex Counties.
Five towns — Aquinnah, Essex, New Ashford, Petersham and Warwick — were listed without any power whatsoever, according to MEMA.
“If you live along the coast, it was a pretty messy night,” Gov. Charlie Baker said during an interview with WEEI Thursday morning, adding that restoring electricity to the region is “job number one.”
According to the National Weather Service wind gusts reached up to 90 mph in Provincetown, with many other towns in Cape Cod reaching up to the high 70s and 80s.
A 27-year-old man in Beverly was taken to the hospital with a head wound after a downed tree crashed into his home on Brimbal Avenue around 2:30 a.m., police said. They did not provide an update on his current condition.
Another home in Duxbury was hit by a downed tree and deemed uninhabitable, though no one was injured, local fire department officials said.
Fairhaven, Mass Wind Damage Photos near where the 88 MPH gust occurred in the West Island portion of Fairhaven. Photos by: Geoff Haworth #mawx pic.twitter.com/TfPO1ptpmg
— NWS Boston/Norton Skywarn (@WX1BOX) October 17, 2019
Multiple delays were reported by the MBTA and dozens of schools closed Thursday due to the conditions caused by the storm.
Outage Maps:
National Grid power outage map
“In consultation with Cohasset Police and Fire, there will be no school today, Thursday, October 17, 2019. All after school activities are also canceled. Please stay safe,” tweeted Pat Sullivan, the Cohasset Public Schools superintendent.
An official with the NWS said that as of 8 a.m. the storm had moved up to southern New Hampshire near Concord and would continue to travel up through northern New England. Thursday’s forecast in Mass. listed stern, gusty winds throughout the day, with high wind warnings for the Cape and islands until 6 p.m.
“That is probably going to limit how much and how fast people can get up in the trucks and do some of this work,” Baker said. “When the wind gets above a certain number of miles per hour … it gets pretty dangerous. And there were wind gusts last night that were way north of 50 miles an hour, way north.”
Reid Lamberty, a spokesman for Eversource, reiterated Baker’s statement, saying that due to the high winds the energy provider cannot give an estimate on when they will be able to restore power to all of their customers.
“We have extra crews and hundreds of resources out in the field right now working as safely and quickly as possible to restore power to all our customers, but the damage is pretty widespread,” Lamberty said. “We’ve restored power for 95,000 customers in Eastern Mass. so far, but we’ve still got 83,000 customers left.”
If your just waking up Duxbury had a major weather event move through last night. DXFD has been responding to calls all morning related to this storm. USE CAUTION as you leave your houses this morning many streets remain closed with trees and wires down. #DXFD #weather pic.twitter.com/xbsjxDLEyl
— Duxbury Fire PIO (@DXFD_PIO) October 17, 2019
Please use caution heading out this AM, storm has caused damage across the area like this limb blocking Livingston St. Our officers, @TownofTewksbury DPW crews, and @nationalgridus have been working all night to clear roads and restore power. Stay away from downed lines! ⚡ TPD21 pic.twitter.com/s5GnolTKO2
— Tewksbury Police (@TewksburyPD) October 17, 2019
Dangerous traveling conditions. Wires and trees down. Most of Marshfield out of power. Treat all wires as live and call police, DO NOT TOUCH. Schools closed, Town Hall 2 hour delay, Rec. Center, Council on Aging, and Library closed.
— Marshfield Police Department (@Marshfield_PD) October 17, 2019
National grid outage map
Eversource power outage map
