National Grid restoring power after damaging storm, power restored to more than 140,000 customers
National Grid crews were working Saturday to restore power to residents after a powerful storm swept across Massachusetts, with heavy rains and high winds that toppled trees, took down power lines and damaged poles.
As of 10 a.m. Saturday, about 11,000 National Grid customers were without power in Massachusetts.
“Our crews worked in challenging conditions last night and remain dedicated to restoring customers as quickly as possible and keeping our teams and the public safe,” said Tanya Moniz-Witten, National Grid vice president of New England electric operations, in a statement. “We are on track to restore most customers by tonight, and we will continue working until every last customer has had their service restored.”
The hardest hit areas include Cape Ann and the Merrimack Valley, and additional crews were shifted to those locations to help deal with a region that saw significant damage. More than 100 poles broke during the course of the storm.
National Grid says it had tracked the storm for several days, and was well-prepared to respond, with crews mobilized at staging sites across Massachusetts.
The storm struck the region late Thursday night, bringing with it heavy rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph in some areas, including in Lawrence and at Boston’s Logan International Airport. At the peak of the storm, at around 8 p.m. Friday, nearly 60,000 customers experienced power outages.
Heavy winds continued throughout the day on Friday, contributing to challenging restoration conditions for crews. As of 5 p.m. Friday, just over 25,000 customers were without power. That number climbed to nearly 57,000 by 8 p.m. following another burst of damaging winds that occurred in the Merrimack Valley and elsewhere Friday evening. Crews continued to work throughout the night to restore customers.
The company deployed more than 2,000 personnel to respond to the storm, removing downed wires, fallen trees and other hazards in advance of restoring power by repairing lines and replacing poles and other equipment.
National Grid says it expect the vast majority of customers affected by the outages will have their power restored by Saturday night, while there will be some pockets without power into Sunday.
To report power outages, visit www.nationalgridus.com or call 1-800-465-1212. Residents can use their mobile device to track outage information and storm-related safety tips through National Grid’s mobile site, www.ngrid.com/mobile.
You an also track outages and estimated restoration times at www.nationalgridus.com/outage-central.
National Grid is also reminding residents to never touch downed power lines, and always assume that any fallen lines are live electric wires. If you see one, report it immediately to National Grid or your local emergency response organization.
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