MARSHFIELD, MASS. (WHDH) - A nor’easter battered the Bay State with powerful wind gusts, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power Thursday morning.
More than 320,000 customers remained without power as of noon, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
Utility crews are working to restore power but Gov. Charlie Baker says this could take days.
“Eversource and the other utilities are already working to restore power where they can, but in some cases, they do need to wait until the winds come down before it’s really going to be safe to get up into a bucket truck,” Baker explained on Wednesday. “At this time, they expect that it will be a multi-day process.”
Cape Cod and the Islands, along with southeastern Mass., felt the brunt of the strong winds during the fall nor’easter that lasted from Tuesday to Wednesday.
The highest gust of the storm was recorded at 94 mph at a ferry dock on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, officials said.
Residents in the area hunkered down as the winds took down trees and power lines.
“The wind was ridiculous,” Scituate Lighthouse Keeper Bob Gallagher said. “It was like being in a lot of turbulence on a plane for a long time.”
Scituate Town Administrator Jim Boudreau added, “It’s just a mess right now.”
“We’re looking at multiple days without power,” he said. “Multiple roads closed around town. Wires down.”
In Quincy, the winds proved to be so powerful that it blew a roof off an apartment building.
Nearby in Cohasset, boats that had been in the water were washed ashore while the press box of an athletic field was blown off the stands and into the parking lot.
Generators could be heard humming in the most-impacted communities.
Baker asked the public for patience as cleanup continues.
“I think it’s really important that we give these guys and gals enough room to actually do the work they need to do to clean the trees out and clean roads out so we can then get people up in the bucket trucks and get everybody’s power back as quickly as possible,” he said.
Stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest on cleanup efforts.
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