Roaring winds topple scaffolding in Saugus

SAUGUS – A portion of scaffolding was ripped off the side of a hotel in Saugus on Saturday due to high winds, according to Saugus fire officials.The Saugus Fire Department responded to the call at Red Roof Inn on Route 1 before noon on Saturday. According to fire officials, no one was injured during the incident.The hotel maintained power and was able to stay open despite any damage. The Saugus Fire Department says the building has since been repaired.The peak wind gusts for the area were reported Saturday morning. According to the National Weather Service, Lynn and Swampscott observers recorded two gusts of 49 mph apiece, Lynn at 8:20 a.m. and Swampscott just 49 minutes later.Although the Greater Lynn area was largely spared, thousands lost electricity around the state as the high winds whistled by, bringing trees and branches down on power lines.About 15,000 households lost power when outages were at their peak Saturday morning, with National Grid reporting about 11,000 outages and NStar reporting roughly 4,000.But utilities said they had crews in the field working to quickly restore power: National Grid said outages were down to about 2,400 by late Saturday afternoon while NStar reported about 800 without power by early evening.Crews for both utilities worked through the night to restore power to the remaining homes while a wind advisory remained in effect for southern New England through early Sunday.(Associated Press material was used in the report.)