Electric crews scramble after storm
Line crews continue to scramble to bring power back to Bay Staters knocked out by the nor’easter that pummeled the coast with 80 mph winds.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reports the outages are centered on the South Shore and Cape Cod, with smaller pockets around Cape Ann. Some of the worst-hit municipalities, many almost or completely without power, include Cohasset, Hingham, Marshfield, Scituate, Norwell, Rockland, Abington and Marion.
One tweet showed a long line of cars waiting to get gas in Marshfield for up to 2 hours due to power outages in the area.
National Grid said it had restored power to over 300,000 customers across New England since the storm hit. At one point Thursday, 146,429 of the utility’s customers in Massachusetts were without power. That figure stands at 13,684 in Rhode Island.
“I’m proud of our crews who have continued to work safely in very challenging conditions to restore power so many of customers, but we’re very mindful that our job is not done until every customer is restored,” said Michael McCallan, Vice President of New England Electric Operations.
Over 3,600 field personnel from National Grid are out repairing the outages, including “overhead line, forestry, contractors, un
derground, damage assessment, wires down, transmission, and substation workers,” according to the release.
National Grid reminded customers that “estimating the time of power restoration is not an exact science,” and can be impacted by work volume, the cause of the outage, and the extent of the damage.
Another of the state’s utilities, Eversource, said crews are working “nonstop,” to bring customers back online.
“Eversource is working nonstop to restore power following Wednesday’s powerful nor’easter,” the company said Thursday morning. “Since the storm began, crews have restored power to more than
234,000 customers and will stay on the job until all homes and businesses are back online.”
The company estimates everyone will be back online by 6 p.m. Saturday,
with most affected customers gaining power before then. Over 1,500 line and tree crews from places as far as Canada, Florida and Kentucky, are working to repair the damage.