Storms rolled through much of southern New England Friday afternoon, bringing down trees and utility poles while knocking out power for thousands of people.
As of Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., some 33,000 customers were without power across the Bay State alone, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s outage map.
Around 72 percent of Andover, totaling more than 10,000 customers, is out of power, and North Andover and Lawrence are experiencing significant outages as of Saturday afternoon.
In terms of damage, scenes across the region included one in Andover where crews were responding to report of a tree that splintered and fell onto a vehicle. In Maynard, strong winds knocked down trees and electrical poles while in Tewksbury, a tree was completely uprooted and ripped up a sidewalk.
Heavy winds and rain in Andover topped trees into power lines, blocked roads and smashed cars. Susan Lerner said a tree hit two of her cars and her house.
“The tree hit and split the car, and when he went to go look at that, another tree hit the bedroom he was in,” Lerner said.
“The windows were shaking, the house were shaking,” said Douglas Wood, another Andover resident. “I wasn’t sure what the heck was going on.”
“We have water damage in three levels,” Lerner said. “It came through the room underneath and into the basement and the attic, the rafters in the attic, so pretty significant.”
People living in the area said the wind and rain moved in a matter of minutes. Carol Feldhusen took shelter in her car.
“I think it was the most scared I’ve ever been in a storm,” Feldhusen said.
Trees and power lines also litter neighborhoods across Acton. Officials tell residents to stay in their homes while crews come to restore power and remove tree limbs.
“At this point it’s just the power line at some point they’re going to turn on the sewage. I’m trying to get this cleaned up so I can get my power,” a neighbor said.
This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.
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