As the current winter storm system continues to move out of the northeast, 100,000 people in Massachusetts are still without power.
According to The Boston Herald, the 100,000 Massachusetts customers were without power going into the late afternoon on Saturday (January 29th). Bill Ritchie, Vice President for Electric Operations at Eversource, spoke about the situation. “We are still in the thick of a major storm that has created blizzard conditions in parts of our area. And despite those difficult conditions in the field, our crews continue restoring power. [Our crew is also] making system repairs when it is safe to do so.”
The media outlet revealed that by 4:15 p.m. on Saturday, utilities’ live data showed nearly 110,000 Massachusetts customers without power. It was down roughly 5,000 in two hours. The ever source data then shared that around 102,600 customers were experiencing outages, and National Grid reported 7,000. The outages were notably in Cape Cod, South Shore, and South Coast areas.
Eversource Energy Works Tirelessly to Restore Power to Massachusetts Customers
William Hinkle, spokesman for Eversource also shared that outages peaked for its Massachusetts customers at about 112,700. This occurred around 10 a.m. on Saturday. Hinkle then explained that heavy snowfall and general conditions have challenged some repair crew efforts. The conditions included strong winds. Eversource has deployed more than 1,000 line and tree crews during the storm.
Eversource further explains that 161,000 customers had their power restored throughout Saturday. The energy company also restored power to more than 50,000 customers overnight Saturday into Sunday. It expected the vast majority of the approximately 54,000 customers remaining without power as of 9 a.m.
Ritchie said, “Our crews made great progress restoring power to more than 50,000 customers overnight. Additional resources will continue arriving through the morning to support our massive restoration. And our more than 1,700 crews and additional support staff will not stop working until every home and business has power back.”
Massachusetts Meteorologist Says That the State May Have Seen the Worst of the Storm
While speaking with the Boston Herald, Rob Megnia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Boston/Norton station stated that he thinks that Massachusetts has seen the worst of the storm.
Megnia also shared that while the storm dumped 3 to 4 inches of snow in southeastern Massachusetts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., he says that the storm has died down mostly. However, the region also saw wind gusts as high as 83 miles per hour.
Bill Leatham, another National Weather Service Meteorologist said 18 to 24 inches of snow was expected to hit Boston during the storm. Some Massachusetts areas were actually facing a possible 30 inches. Tidal surges were also predicted to make some coasting flooding the state’s southern coastline.
