Newsletter Signup
Stay up to date on all the latest news from Boston.com
Power outages in Mass.: ‘The potential exists across the state’ Tuesday night
Officials are concerned that residents will be left in the dark as a weather event brings strong winds and the threat of flooding.
Another weather event is rolling through Massachusetts beginning Tuesday evening, but this time, it brings with it less snow and more heavy rain and strong winds — which means a high likelihood of power outages.
Most of the commonwealth was under a flood watch through Wednesday afternoon. Under a high wind warning, North Shore communities and southeastern Massachusetts could see wind gusts up to 65 mph., while much of the state was under a wind advisory, with the potential to see wind gusts of 55 mph.
Alan Dunham with NWS Boston said those powerful winds mean power outages are a big concern.
Advertisement:
“There could be some tree limbs down that could cause power outages,” Dunham said. “The potential exists across the state.”
WBZ reports that strong winds will peak sometime between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 5 a.m. Wednesday. Though those winds start to die down as the sun comes up, it will remain windy throughout the day, making power outage recovery more difficult.
The weekend’s snow and Tuesday night’s rain could also make matters worse, both National Grid and Eversource officials warned. The only part of the state not under a flood watch as of Tuesday morning was the Cape and Islands, which could see less than two inches of rain. Some parts of southern New England could see around four inches of rain.
Advertisement:
“Saturated grounds from heavy rainfall and snow melting along with gusting winds have the potential to damage trees and knock down power wires, causing power outages in impacted locations,” a National Grid spokesperson said.
National Grid said this week’s potential power outages will be a challenge considering their crews already had to restore power for tens of thousands of customers due to the weekend’s snow storm.
But their spokesperson said 800 crews and 2,700 field personnel are ready for recovery efforts once the storm passes. Eversource also has nearly 700 additional line crews on standby.
During a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Eversource president for regional electric operations Craig Hallstrom compared what was likely to come Tuesday night to the severe weather event mid-December. Utility officials are also keeping an eye on the next several days with multiple storms in the forecast.
“We are watching another event coming in this weekend very similar to the weather that we’re going to experience tonight and tomorrow,” Hallstrom said. “Depending on how this event goes, most likely we’ll be keeping those crews. Then unfortunately there’s another event on the horizon for next week.”
Power outage map
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com