Power outages across Massachusetts after strong winds pull down trees, utility lines

There were tens of thousands of power outages across Massachusetts Tuesday after an overnight storm with strong winds brought down trees and utility lines.

The outages peaked at nearly 65,000 at 6 a.m. According to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), there were still about 1,500 outages at 11 p.m. 

Eversource reported more than 3,000 customers without power at one point, most of them in southeastern Massachusetts.

National Grid had more than 15,000 customers lose electricity, many of them on the North and South Shore and in Worcester County.

Peak wind gusts hit 81 miles per hour at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory in Milton, setting a new record there for March 17, according to chief weather observer Matt Douglas. They reached 63 miles per hour in Marshfield and Hingham and hit 62 at Logan Airport, where 53 flights were canceled Tuesday. 

The wind gusts pulled a large tree out of the ground on Thacher Street in Attleboro and dropped it on a house. Power was cut off to the home as a precaution.

"After heavy rain, when the ground becomes saturated, the risk of trees falling is always a concern. High winds only increase that risk. Fortunately, in this case, there were no additional hazards and no one was hurt," District Fire Chief Gerry Brogan said in a statement.

In Norwell, a falling tree brought down a power line that started to spark in a yard.

"Little chaos, first thing. We're just addressing them as they come in, obviously. We can't do too much because there's utility infrastructure involved right now. We're waiting for National Grid to come out and assess their lines and the damage and then we'll go from there. Once they free their utilities up, we'll clear the roads remove the debris, hopefully get back to normal," said Shane Gokey of the Norwell Highway Department.

"He would have been killed"

Eighty-year-old Cheryl Robinson said she is thankful her family is okay after a 100-foot pine tree came crashing down on her Wakefield home. 

"It was 2:35 in the morning and I heard this smash. It wiped out the bathroom up there, wiped out the tub, the toilet, everything. In the kitchen all the dishes came down," Robinson said.

Robinson said her brother-in-law Gary had just walked out of the bathroom just moments before the tree fell. 

"He would have been killed. Because that bathroom was devastated," she said.

Massachusetts tree damage

In Norwell, a falling tree brought down a power line that started to spark in a yard. Strong winds also took down this tree on Thatcher Street in Attleboro. In Brockton wind gusts caused scaffolding to collapse on Montello Street.

In North Reading part of a large pine tree branch came down on Brendon Cottreau's home, causing damage to his chimney, siding and deck.

"The biggest issue is it actually sheared the gas line, so we had the gas smell, sound of it emitting, we had to call the fire department," he said.

They are without heat and stove until this gets repaired. 

If you see a power line down, do not go near it. Call 911 immediately and report it to police.