power outages

‘We got hit pretty hard': Cleanup efforts ongoing in Mass. after Monday's storm

Communities on the South Shore of Massachusetts were hammered by wind and rain Monday

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Crews are continuing to clean up in Massachusetts in the aftermath of Monday's storms.

If one of the biggest trees in all of Norwell falls, it turns out everyone hears it.

"Quite something, the biggest tree that I know around," said Robert Visse as he toured the damage on Church Street Wednesday.

The tree stretched across the front yard of a home and onto the street.

Storm cleanup and power restoration continues in New England after Monday's storm barreled through New England.

The toll of the storm is still evident across the South Shore. After days without power, the lights coming back on for some. Power crews from as far as Canada and Kentucky were working hard.

"They have been at it nonstop. I think Scituate was like 99% out of power, so we got hit pretty hard," said Scituate resident Craig LaPlante.

LaPlante says he could only watch and brace himself as the trees in his backyard swayed in the wind on Monday.

Downed trees were still an issue across Massachusetts on Tuesday night after Monday's unprecedented wind and rain storm. The focus is getting power restored as temperatures plummet tonight.

"The winds were gusting, just like bending the trees pretty severely, so when it came through, it came through hard," he said.

In Norwell, Ann Walsh couldn't believe it. The tree her daughter planted 50 years ago also came down in Monday's storm.

"I have been here for 50 years and even when we had a hurricane, I didn't hear the wind howl like I heard it howl this time, it sounded awful," she said.

Trees smashed into houses, downed wires, and closed roads, including the VFW Parkway.

The storm knocking out power to nearly 300,000 National Grid customers. Crews have replaced more than 400 poles and fixing power lines, downed by trees.

"Most of it comes down to 'life is hard' for an urban tree," said DCR Forest Health Director Nicole Keleher. "They have limited space to grow, limited area for their roots, they have a lot of stressors, and compared to their forest counterparts, when we have a big storm event like this, they don't have neighboring trees to help break the wind."

By Wednesday evening, National Grid said just a few thousand customers remained without power, with the hope of getting everyone online by Thursday afternoon.

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