A powerful storm is battering the region with heavy rain and wind gusts approaching 90 miles-per-hour, knocking out power to 425,000 customers, causing schools to be canceled or delayed, and slowing down the Wednesday morning commute on the MBTA and highways.
Marshfield and Carver public schools canceled classes Wednesday, according to a notes from their administrations. Milton and Stoughton schools also closed after initially announcing delays Wednesday.
“Due to power outages and tree damage throughout Stoughton, our schools will now be closed TODAY, Wednesday, October 27, 2021,’’ the Stoughton system announced.
Said the Milton Public Schools in a robo-call to parents, “It’s not safe for our students.’’
Additional school cancelations were reported in locales including Fall River, Truro, and New Bedford.
“Be safe and stay dry,” Fall River Superintendent Maria Pontes tweeted.
A wind gust of 94 miles an hour was recorded in Edgartown at 4:31 a.m., according to the National Weather Service, one of multiple instances when winds reached high speeds on Cape Cod and coastal South Shore communities.
Highest gusts as of 430 AM:
- 88 mph Vineyard Haven
— NWS Boston (@NWSBoston) October 27, 2021
- 87 mph Scituate
- 84 mph Duxbury
- 83 mph Wellfleet
- 82 mph Dennis
- 80 mph Truro
The storm barreled up the East Coast Tuesday with high winds and rain intensifying overnight, which likely won’t die down until Wednesday afternoon, according to the weather service. The weather service warned that those “along the immediate coast, including Cape Cod & Islands,” should expect gusts of 75 to 85 miles-per-hour until 7 a.m.
Update: Greenbush Train 070 (5:10 am from Greenbush) is now operating about 1 hour behind schedule between North Scituate and South Station due to a signal issue and a downed tree.
— MBTA Commuter Rail (@MBTA_CR) October 27, 2021
Outages were widespread Wednesday morning, but focused most heavily on the coast.
Just after 5 a.m., more than 50 percent of customers in seven Cape towns had lost power, and Provincetown had completely lost power. About 90 percent of customers in Wellfleet were experiencing outages just after 4:15 a.m., according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s online map. But by 5 a.m., just under half had no power.
Peak winds occurred around 3:10 a.m., “along the immediate coast, [especially] from Plymouth County to Cape Cod,” the weather service tweeted.
Along the northern coastline, 100 percent of customers in Essex and Hamilton were experiencing outages.
South of Boston in Cohasset and Hingham, outages were affecting 100 percent of electric users. Over 6,700 customers in Scituate also didn’t have power.
Cohasset police reported that electrical wires were down and the roadway was blocked at the intersection of Pond and Spring streets, and that South Main Street was blocked by a tree that had fallen onto power lines.
“The town has sustained substantial damage to trees and electrical infrastructure overnight,” Cohasset police Chief William Quigley said in a message to residents. “Numerous roads and ways are completely blocked. National Grid is in town and surveying damage, but the storm is still active and delaying their progress.”
Quigley said officials had been responding to emergencies all night.
“All residents are asked to stay off the roads and give emergency personnel room to work,” Quigley said.
Duxbury police and fire were responding to multiple trees down and a high volume of emergency calls. Town fire officials tweeted around 8 a.m. that they had responded to more than 90 calls in the prior 12 hours. The Fire Department posted a number of photos of downed trees and wrote, “This is what most parts of town look like. Please stay off the roads unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Trees on the tracks were delaying the MBTA’s Red Line for both the Ashmont and Braintree branches, buses were in use on the Mattapan trolley line, and weather-related delays were reported on the Framingham, Greenbush and Newburyport/Beverly commuter rail lines.
Update: Greenbush Train 070 (5:10 am from Greenbush) is now operating about 1 hour behind schedule between North Scituate and South Station due to a signal issue and a downed tree.
— MBTA Commuter Rail (@MBTA_CR) October 27, 2021
Other towns across the state saw downed trees, power lines, and road closures in the early morning.
In Mansfield, Sterns Avenue was closed overnight after a tree fell down on wires and into the road. The Brockton, Billerica, Cambridge, and Stow police departments all reported possible trees down overnight.
“People should avoid being outside in forested areas and around trees and branches,” the weather service said. “If possible, remain in the lower levels of your home during the windstorm, and avoid windows. Use caution if you must drive.”
The state Department of Transportation, meanwhile, was reporting a number of issues on state roads Wednesday morning.
Those problems included a downed utility pole in Milton snarling northbound traffic on the Southeast Expressway for commuters using Exit 11, a lane closure on Route 24 south in Berkley due to a tree in a travel lane, downed power lines on Route 203 in Boston, and a felled tree and power wires on Route 28 in Barnstable that had closed traffic in both directions early Wednesday.
The weather service also reported problems at a small airport in New Bedford.
The agency at 6:21 a.m. flagged what it called social media reports of “a parked plane at New Bedford Regional Airport which was picked up by strong winds, landing in the middle of the road up against a tree.”
Ferry service was affected as well.
The Steamship Authority canceled 10 ferry trips between Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven on Tuesday “due to weather conditions,” the authority said on its website, and it cautioned that further service disruptions were possible Wednesday.
Salem, which draws scores of Halloween visitors this week, announced ferry service from Boston was canceled Tuesday and Wednesday, due to the storm. The MBTA also announced it had canceled ferry service from Charlestown and Hingham on both days.
In addition, the T reported that Red Line service was being disrupted Wednesday morning between Quincy Center and JFK/UMass due to downed trees. A felled tree on Valley Road in Milton also put the brakes on Mattapan Trolley service Wednesday.
High wind warnings, which also included the Rhode Island coast, are in effect until Wednesday afternoon. The peak winds are expected in the early morning hours of Wednesday.
And with the storm concentrating its fury on the South Shore and Cape Cod, courthouses in the region were delaying openings until noon in Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket, Norfolk and Plymouth counties, officials said.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JREbosglobe. Martin Finucane can be reached at martin.finucane@globe.com. Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox. Colleen Cronin can be reached at colleen.cronin@globe.com. Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.
"Hour" - Google News
October 27, 2021 at 07:34PM
https://ift.tt/3nBbHhh
Nor’easter with wind gusts up to 94 miles per hour leaves hundreds of thousands of customers without power - The Boston Globe
"Hour" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WcHWWo
https://ift.tt/2Stbv5k
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Nor’easter with wind gusts up to 94 miles per hour leaves hundreds of thousands of customers without power - The Boston Globe"
Post a Comment