Some families in Massachusetts, especially on the South Shore, were going to bed again Tuesday night without power. Many have resorted on generators getting them through, but there were also warnings, with Pembroke police saying a generator likely caused a garage fire on Station Street. Meanwhile, utility crews are still working around the clock to address the remaining downed power lines caused by strong winds and rain.
Hundreds of thousands of New Englanders were still without power Tuesday, the day after after a storm brought heavy rain and strong winds to the region.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reported 22,406 customers were still without power as of 6:48 a.m. Wednesday, down from a peak of nearly 300,000 during the height of Monday's storm.
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In Maine, Central Maine Power reported that 209,813 homes had no power as of 6:58 a.m. Wednesday.
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"We continue to make progress in our efforts to restore power to all customers affected by yesterday’s wind and rainstorm," CMP said on its website. "So far today, we have restored power to more than 117,000 customers or about 29% of those affected. We have more than 2,000 people including 1,400 line and tree crews on the job now with more arriving tomorrow, working 24x7 until power is restored to all of our customers."
"We know it can seem frustrating and as if nothing is happening but, rest assured, we are on it – working to complete these initial steps of restoration as safely and quickly as possible."
Connecticut had more than 4,826 customers still without power as of Wednesday morning.
Rhode Island still had more than 220 customers without power as of 7:04 a.m. Wednesday. New Hampshire's four main electric providers were reporting about 131 customers without power, while there were only 22 homes without power in Vermont.
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According to MEMA, 92% of residents in the South Shore town of Scituate were still without power at one point on Tuesday. The Scituate Emergency Management Agency said in a press release Monday afternoon that full power restoration could take up to 72 hours from the conclusion of the storm. Residents were being urged to stay off the roads if possible to allow National Grid to begin clean-up and power restoration efforts.
The senior center, town library and town hall are open during the day for warming and to charge devices. Click here for a list of hours.
National Grid said they were still working to restore power to 20,242 of its Massachusetts customers as of 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, down more than 50,000 from around 10 a.m. They said the highest concentrations of outages remain in the counties of Bristol, Norfolk, and Plymouth.
As of 7:18 a.m. Wednesday, 14,670 customers were still affected by the outage.
The utility said they have secured additional crews from New York and Canada to help with the restoration effort, and that they'll continue working for as long as needed to restore service as quickly and safely as conditions allow.
"Our crews continue to work tirelessly to restore service as quickly and as safely as we can, and we've made great progress throughout the day today,” said Tim Moore, Vice President for Electric Operations for New England. “This storm caused extensive damage largely across Eastern Massachusetts, and we have allocated additional crews who are focused on the hardest hit locations. We recognize that no one wants to be without power, especially as everyone is preparing for the holidays, but we’ll continue to work until every last customer is restored.”
"As always, the safety of our customers, communities, and crews is the top priority during any power restoration process."
