On Monday, April 13, heavy rainfall and high winds ravaged Massachusetts and the surrounding New England states, causing widespread power outages. From noon to 10 p.m. on Monday, the entire state, with the exception of Franklin County, was under a high wind warning.

In Massachusetts, the rain became most intense around noon, and wind gusts reached their highest speeds throughout the rest of the afternoon. WCVB 5 reported that by 10 p.m. on Monday night, some areas in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut had received between one and two inches of rain, while Boston received about .6 inches.

The majority of the state saw wind gusts higher than 50 miles per hour, while Milton, a town in Norfolk Country, saw the highest recorded wind gust in the state at 80 miles per hour. This wind gust occurred right around 1 p.m. A 72 mile per hour wind took the spot for the second highest gust of the day in Duxbury, a community in Plymouth County. This wind gust occurred at about 6:30 p.m. Embedded thunderstorms also occurred throughout the course of the storm, and increased the speed of winds in those thunderstorm areas as well.

Late Monday night, the rains began to cease, and the winds began to slow down. As a result of the intense conditions that damaged the state earlier in the day, however, reports of trees falling on wires, vehicles, homes, and other buildings surfaced all throughout the state.

According to patch.com, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reported that 132,258 customers were without power in the state of Massachusetts at 7:17 p.m. Monday evening. By 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 14, 51,602 households still remained without power, according to Masslive.com. According to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s online power outage map, 1036 customers were still without power as of 5 p.m. Wednesday evening.

Masslive.com also reported that the majority of power outages occurred in Eastern Massachusetts, in towns and cities on and around the coast. Rehoboth, a town in Bristol county, reported that 64 percent of customers were still without power on Tuesday morning, which was the highest percentage in Massachusetts that morning. In Plymouth County, the town of Hanson reported 61 percent of customers still without power Tuesday morning, and in Norfolk County, the community of Cohasset reported that 55 percent of residents were without power on Tuesday morning as well. Overall, Plymouth County reported the highest amount of power outages on Tuesday morning, at about 12 percent.

Earlier in the day on Monday, National Grid called the storm a Type 3 event in Massachusetts, which, according to Masslive.com, meant that National Grid expected that roughly 10% of their customers could be impacted by power outages for as long as three days. The company issued a statement saying: “National Grid recognizes the ongoing challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and has been monitoring the potential weather conditions for several days.” The statement also assured its customers that “the Company has been securing additional resources to support potential restoration needs.”

Eversource Vice President of Electric Operations Doug Foley said that energy line and tree crews were positioned and “ready to respond,” around the state, “working under the challenging conditions related to the pandemic.” He assured customers that crews were working constantly to repair damages as “quickly and safely as possible,” while acknowledging that “some restorations may take longer as we work to ensure the safety of our employees and customers.”

Sources:

https://www.wcvb.com/article/impact-weather-downpours-locally-damaging-winds-monday/32111146 https://www.masslive.com/weather/2020/04/wind-gusts-reached-80-miles-per-hour-in-massachusetts-during-mondays-storm.html https://www.necn.com/weather/wind-rain-to-lash-new-england-as-maine-recovers-from-storm/2259257/ http://mema.mapsonline.net/public.html https://www.masslive.com/weather/2020/04/possible-power-outages-caused-by-massachusetts-storm-could-last-days-power-companies-warn.html https://www.masslive.com/weather/2020/04/possible-power-outages-caused-by-massachusetts-storm-could-last-days-power-companies-warn.html https://www.masslive.com/weather/2020/04/tens-of-thousands-in-massachusetts-remain-without-power-tuesday-after-storm.html

https://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/ma-power-outages-hospitals-care-facilities-have-backups