Tens of thousands are still without power in Bay State
Tens of thousands of Bay State homes and businesses are still in the dark after last week’s damaging snowstorm blew through the region, with power utilities expecting all customers to be back online by midnight tonight.
At 8 pm. last night, National Grid told its more than 18,200 customers without power that its hundreds of crews were doing all they could to bring the electricity back.
“We know losing power is a tremendous hardship for our customers,” the company said in a statement. “We are working as quickly as we can, while ensuring the safety of our customers, the public and our employees.”
National Grid’s service area in the Merrimack Valley was especially hardhit by Wednesday’s storm that dumped wet, heavy snow and toppled trees and branches onto power lines.
The company said it has 540 line crews, 201 tree crews and 189 wires down and damage support crews working in the Merrimack Valley, where all of its customers are expected to have their power restored by midnight tonight.
Eversource Energy last night reported 3,025 outages, mostly in the metro Boston area. The company also stressed that “non-stop repair efforts” were underway. Eversource said it expected to be “substantially complete” with power restoration work by late last night.
The company’s more than 500 crews were out in force, making a final push to get lights on for customers. This late in the power restoration push, repairs now more often affect single streets or homes, rather than neighborhoods or larger groups of homes, Eversource said.
In a statement, Eversource field operations head Doug Foley said, “Our crews are doing a tremendous job, working long hours around-the-clock since the first storm began on March 2. Many of them lost power at their own homes but they are committed to working until every last customer is restored.”
Foley added, “We understand how trying it is for our customers to be without power and we truly appreciate their patience.”