A powerful nor’easter battered the North Shore Tuesday night into Wednesday afternoon, delivering up to 80-mph winds and knocking out power in several communities.
Downed trees and wires were seen throughout the area, with reports of trees falling on cars, into homes, and onto power lines making up the majority of entries in local police logs over that two-day period.
The storm caused several schools to close in Lynn, and left schools throughout Marblehead on a two-hour delay. An elementary school in Swampscott also had to cancel classes on Wednesday.
One of the hardest-hit areas was Marblehead, which experienced a town-wide power outage while crews worked to repair storm damage, according to a Facebook post from the Marblehead Municipal Light Plant (MMLP).
“Our town was hit hard by the high winds,” said the MMLP in an early-Wednesday morning post. “We needed to kill power to the entire town to safely clear trees from our high-voltage feeder lines from Salem. Trees have pulled down utility poles and wires throughout town.”
Marblehead Light Department crews had re-energized the main power substation off Village Street by 11 a.m. Wednesday, nine hours after a wind-driven storm blacked out the town.
Marblehead Fire Capt. Eric Ridge said re-energizing the substation allows department workers to reestablish power to 24 electrical circuits located around town. The two-day storm downed trees onto houses and cars, but Ridge said no injuries had been reported as of late Wednesday morning.
Marblehead police early Wednesday cautioned residents to move with care around town.
“Assume all wires that are down are live. Tree and electric crews are out working and expect at least one more hour before power is restored,” stated the MMLP post.
In Lynn, the Fire Department received almost 50 storm-related calls as of 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, with the first calls coming in at around 6 p.m. Tuesday, said Fire Chief Stephen Archer.
“We had a very busy time,” said Archer.
The city experienced tree limbs that had fallen onto power lines and scattered power outages. As of Wednesday morning, National Grid reported 40 homes in Lynn without power in the Highlands and outages off Boston Street.
The Fire Department has been working with the Department of Public Works crews and National Grid power teams, getting the power restored and assessing the damage to homes. Fortunately, there have been no serious injuries or casualties reported, Archer said.
National Grid’s power outage map on Wednesday morning also showed more than 30 homes in Swampscott were without power on Monument Avenue and Thomas Road, with additional outages reported on side streets between Essex Street and Columbia Avenue affecting 90 residents. Initial outage reports in Saugus indicated 38 homes without power.
Overall, National Grid reported the hardest-hit areas, in terms of power outages, ranged along Eastern Massachusetts — which the Greater Boston area dominates — and throughout Rhode Island. As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, more than 315,000 National Grid customers — more than 220,000 in Massachusetts and 92,000 in Rhode Island — were without power. Restoration efforts are expected to continue over the next few days, according to a press release from the company.
“We’re seeing significant impact to our system as a result of downed trees, limbs, poles, and wires, and we have also sustained damage to some transmission lines feeding substations, which results in widespread community outages,” said Michael McCallan, vice president of New England electric operations for National Grid. “We remain focused on public safety today as our line and forestry workers work to assess and repair power systems in affected communities.
“We will be prioritizing those repairs that will return service to the largest number of customers first, and will of course continue to work until every customer has their electricity back,” he said.
In Swampscott, there was significant and widespread tree damage all around the town, said Fire Chief Graham Archer.
“This was one of the most impactful wind events in the town since I’ve become the chief,” said Archer.
As a result of the storm, eight roadways were completely blocked and five houses were damaged by uprooted and fallen trees, said the DPW Director and Assistant Town Administrator Gino Cresta. The DPW had cleared half of the roadways by the morning and was hoping to open up the rest of them by the end of the day on Wednesday.
Cresta said that there were hundreds of tree branches scattered on the streets that the department will probably be picking up by the end of next week.
One crew of the Swampscott Department of Public Works started working at 7 p.m. Tuesday and continued through the night. On Wednesday, Cresta had two four-men crews working from 7 a.m.
A large oak tree limb hit the historic Humphrey House on Wednesday morning, causing damage to its siding, a window and some interior. It rocked the house on the lean-to beams at its side and rear, said Molly Conner from the Historical Society. The Society is still evaluating the damage. The house was built in the 1600s by the first wave of European settlers in America.
Swampscott did not cancel school throughout town. However, a downed power line blocked access to the Stanley Elementary School, which had to cancel classes.
On a positive note, Swampscott didn’t get any flooding this time, Cresta said.
Saugus saw a large number of fallen trees and branches throughout town due to the high winds. Calls began around midnight Wednesday, according to the town’s DPW.
“The early part of the morning was not that bad; we were keeping up with it, then around four or five o’clock this morning all the calls started coming in,” said Saugus DPW Director Brendan O’Regan. “We are giving priority to the areas that have trees that are blocking the road that are preventing people from getting from place to place.”
Peabody had to deal with a few fallen trees in various spots throughout the city and also had some telephone poles fall over due to the extreme wind.
“We had to divert traffic on Washington Street before school started,” said Police Chief Thomas Griffin.
Griffin added that the city was still dealing with fallen trees on Forest Street. While the police chief was unaware of the status of power throughout the city, he did mention that the lights flickered at the police station various times throughout the storm.
While damage was significant on the North Shore, some communities did get lucky. For instance, in Lynnfield and Nahant, the damage was minimal.
Lynnfield wasn’t dealing with any extraordinary problems compared to other cities and towns, said Police Sgt. Jared Provost.
However, Provost said that Doncaster Street was expected to lose power at some point on Wednesday, as a downed tree was resting on power lines. Crews would have to cut power to clear the tree, he said.
In Nahant, there was little to no damage, according to the town’s DPW.
“We did have quite a few branches down and we lost some power to the golf course and some streets, but we’ve done pretty well here,” said DPW Administrative Assistant Mary Lowe.
“Everything is good so far — a few branches down here and there and a few down wires but nothing too crazy,” added Nahant Fire Lt. David Doyle.
Lowe said there was little to no flooding; the area with the most damage was at the Kelley Greens Golf Course, she said. Kelley Greens announced Wednesday afternoon that its kitchen, restaurant, and bar were closed for the day due to the flooding and power outages seen at the course.
“We hope to be back up and running tomorrow; stay safe,” said Kelley Greens in a Facebook post.
However, the storm may have impacted the phone system at the Nahant Police Department, according to Police Chief Timothy Furlong.
The department’s phones went down Wednesday morning. Police announced that none of their business lines were working, but said the 9-1-1 lines were still operational if there was an emergency.
“Verizon is aware of it and is working to fix the issue,” the Nahant Police Department said in a statement.
National Grid has more than 2,400 field personnel responding to power outages resulting from the nor’easter. Once the company has completed damage assessment and addressed the most significant public-safety issues, estimated times of power restoration will be updated on its outage central site, the company said.
Item writers Gayla Cawley, Hannah Chadwick, Thor Jourgensen, Alena Kuzub, and Sam Minton contributed to this report.
