Massachusetts

More Than 47K in Mass. Still Without Power After Second March Nor'easter

What to Know

  • Nearly 120,000 customers were still without power in Massachusetts Friday.
  • Eversource and National Grid said it could be late Sunday before they can restore power to every home and business.
  • Another storm - the third nor'easter of March - could hit the region early next week.

More than 47,000 customers were still without power in Massachusetts early Saturday afternoon after heavy snow from a second March nor'easter took down tree limbs and power lines in many communities earlier in the week.

National Grid reported more than 37,400 customers were still without power, while Eversource reported more than 9,600 around 11:45 a.m.

Eversource said they have been working non-stop since to clear damage and restore power in MetroWest and Greater Boston. Officials estimate that they will have complete power restoration by Saturday evening.

"We recognize the significant disruption to our customers’ lives when they lose power and we greatly appreciate their patience," said Doug Foley, Eversource's vice president of electric field operations. "Our restoration effort is a demanding task for crews and support personnel, especially considering they’ve been working non-stop to address storm damage across Eastern Massachusetts for a full week now. The one-two punch Mother Nature delivered affected more than a half-million of our customers, and we still have significant work to do to restore power."

National Grid, which serves Massachusetts and Rhode Island, is also preparing customers for long waits to get their power back, especially in the Merrimack Valley. The utility says it has more than 300 crews from 16 states and Canada working on the problem, but some of its customers may be without power until midnight Sunday.

"We've been making solid progress in the restoration of our network and getting our customers back on supply," said Cordi O'Hara, president of National Grid in Massachusetts. "We know that these back-to-back nor'easters are really tough for our customers. We absolutely sympathize with the position they're in and we understand their frustration."

With trees and power limbs down across many communities, the cleanup is making many roads impassable and cleanup difficult. The lack of electricity is also very frustrating for those without it.

"It's annoying. Let's put it that way. So now, for instance, I'm going to Newburyport to get breakfast for my mom because we can't cook breakfast because there's no electricity," said Theodore Papadakis of Haverhill.

Haverhill Mayor Jim Fiorentini took to Twitter Friday to express his frustration with National Grid.

"Just spoke with National Grid. Told them they need to bring in more crews and do whatever is necessary to restore power," he said around 4:30 p.m. "Still over half (58%) of Haverhill is without power. They tell me that some will have power restored today/tonight but some will not. It is completely unacceptable that our citizens have to bear another night without heat or power."

Some other New England states were also still dealing with outages on Saturday, but not to the same extent as Massachusetts.

In Connecticut, more than 18,300 Eversource customers were still in the dark at 11:50 a.m. Saturday, as were more than 1,800 United Illuminating customers.

At that same time, Central Maine Power reported more than 270 customers without power. In New Hampshire, just 24 Unitil customers and 21 Eversource customers were still without power. Just 5 National Grid customers were still in the dark in Rhode Island.

Green Mountain Power in Vermont reported two customers without power.

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