SCITUATE, MASS. (WHDH) - The storm that battered southern New England Monday hit South Shore communities particularly hard, knocking out power to nearly all of Scituate and forcing local officials to close schools Tuesday.
Ninety-nine percent of Scituate energy customers were in the dark as of around 9 p.m., according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. Seventy percent of Norwell was without power. In Duxbury, 74% of customers were impacted by outages.
Elsewhere, power outages were impacting more than 80% of customers in Millis, Plainville and Rochester.
Back within Scituate, National Grid trucks were spotted around town as the sun set.
While crews were assembling to restore power, local officials warned the restoration could take up to 72 hours.
“Residents are strongly advised to avoid road travel to facilitate cleanup efforts by the Town of Scituate and National Grid crews working overnight,” Scituate officials said near 5:15 p.m. “National Grid will perform damage assessments during the night, and restoration efforts will commence once it is deemed safe.”
Storm conditions were improving late Monday afternoon. Earlier in the day, as gusty wind lingered, officials said they were working to adjust school bus dismissal routes to get students home safely.
Town officials announced early Monday afternoon that schools would be closed Tuesday.
In its own message on its website, the Scituate Public Schools said all school buildings would be closed effective Monday at dismissal. There will be no school or after school activities on Tuesday, the school district confirmed.
Though schools are closed, the Scituate Town Library was slated to remain open until 9 p.m. Monday. The library will then be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday as a warming and device-charging facility. The Scituate Senior Center and Scituate Town Hall will also be open on Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. respectively.
Wind gusts in Scituate surpassed 50 miles-per-hour Monday. Elsewhere, several other communities including Boston, Nantucket, Norwood and North Weymouth notched gusts over 60 miles-per-hour.
The mix of wind and rain caused damage, transit delays and power outages throughout the region, keeping crews busy into Monday night.
One National Grid worker in Scituate told 7NEWS he was tasked with keeping people clear of a utility pole left swaying in the wind over a local street.
“If it comes down, it could be deadly,” said James McCauley.
“Stay clear of everything on the ground,” he said. “Wires are everywhere. They’re energized, possibly, from generators from people’s houses. Just stay home. Don’t go anywhere.”
‘A lot of roads are closed’
National Grid reported significant damage to feeder lines coming out of a substation in Hanover, which powers towns like Scituate.
Further south, in Plympton, snapped utility poles were seen blocking roads, with caution tape closing off some spots where wires fell on streets Monday.
At one point, more than half of Plympton was without power.
The roadblocks, meanwhile, made work more challenging for delivery workers, including one man trying to get essential medicine to nursing homes.
“A lot of roads are closed, so you have to go around,” said medicine delivery worker Jose Flores. “A lot of trees have fallen too, right in the street.”
“It’s hard to do deliveries right now,” he said.
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