In the wake of a ferocious storm that struck Massachusetts with nearly hurricane-force gusts and relentless rain, residents are facing a prolonged, darkness-filled wait as utilities hustle to restore power. The tempest trampled through New England, leaving a swath of toppled trees, snapped power lines, and shattered utility poles from Sunday into Monday. According to Boston.com, tens of thousands in the region have since been gripped by blackouts, with some not expecting the lights back on for days.
With over 600,000 initial outages in New England and the vast majority in Maine, followed by Massachusetts, the restoration efforts appear daunting. Fallen debris complicates access for assessment teams, highlighted by an Eversource spokesperson who mentioned areas with large swathes of outages are being prioritized. The challenge was scaled up, as "this was bigger than we first thought," Craig Hallstrom, president of Eversource's Regional Electric Operations, told Boston.com, describing the storm's unexpected ferocity. Eversource, which had rallied 450 crews by Monday, restored power to over 177,000 Massachusetts customers, yet around 44,000 remained powerless as of today.
The situation is dire but not stagnant. National Grid, serving other parts of the commonwealth, reported more than 73,000 outages as of Tuesday morning, as per Boston.com. In towns like Scituate, Hanover, and Pembroke, thousands are still in the lurch, trying to navigate life without electricity. While power for more than 205,000 National Grid customers has been restored, Tim Moore, vice president for Electric Operations for New England, acknowledged in a WCVB interview, "there is a long way to go."
For those counting the hours until their homes are re-energized, "substantially complete" is a term being offered by Eversource, meaning at least 99% of customers in all communities should have power by 11 p.m. Wednesday. The company, which swelled its workforce to combat the savage storm's wrath, still must repair "extensive and complex damage," it stated in a summary accorded to WCVB. And for those looking for more personalized updates, both Eversource and National Grid provide text message notifications for customers who sign up for the service, in addition to online outage maps.
As the holiday season nears, the timing of the blackout spells frustration and hardship for affected residents. Unitil, another utility grappling with the storm's aftermath, saw improvement, dropping from a peak of around 11,668 customers without power to just 1,100 in New Hampshire. "Our crews have worked around the clock restoring power to tens of thousands of customers who lost power during Monday’s high winds," Unitil Media Relations Manager Alec O’Meara conveyed in a statement obtained by WCVB, assuring that efforts will persist until all outages have ceased.
