PEPPERELL, MASS. (WHDH) - Winter weather sweeping across the region knocked out power to thousands of energy customers across Massachusetts on Tuesday, according to state officials.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reported Wednesday that over 29,000 customers are still without power as of 8:30 a.m. That figure was around 40,000 at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Officials said efforts to get the lights back could take time.
“Crews are going to be restoring power where possible, but we fully expect this to be a multi-day event because we may not have even seen all the issues that we’re ultimately going to see on the system,” said Alec O’Mera of the utility company Unitil, which covers Massachusetts communities including Lunenburg, Ashby and Fitchburg.
Outages spanned communities across Massachusetts. Cities and towns in northern Worcester County and parts of western Massachusetts were among the hardest hit.
Power crews previously arrived in Massachusetts ahead of winter weather in recent days, with Eversource calling in crews from as far away as Canada, Texas and Michigan.
In a statement on Monday, officials with National Grid also signaled their preparedness efforts, including 1,000 field crews and over 3,000 personnel as part of the company’s response operations.
The daylong storm that began Monday night dropped more than two feet of snow in some locations by Tuesday night, with closer to three feet in some scattered spots. Snow totals were lower in parts of eastern Massachusetts, though wind has been howling especially in coastal communities.
Snow is expected to wind down overnight ahead of warmer temperatures later this week.
For more weather information, check out the 7WEATHER Blog.
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