320,000 Homes And Businesses Lose Power In Massachusetts After Storm

BOSTON (CBS) – Just under 200,000 homes and business still have no power in Massachusetts after a strong wind and rain storm brought down trees and utility lines across the state early Monday morning.

The outages peaked at around 320,000, the most since Super Storm Sandy knocked out electricity to 380,000 in 2012.

Eversource said in a tweet Monday afternoon that they had restored power to over 100,000 customers, "but we do anticipate our restoration effort will extend beyond today."

Read: MEMA Power Outage Update

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) says the hardest hit areas are Salisbury and North Andover on the North Shore, parts of Worcester County and Carver, Dighton and Seekonk in the southeast corner of the state.

In Brockton, officials said it could be 72 hours before power is restored.

Read: Power Outage Safety Tips

Utilities are warning customers to be aware of wires down on the ground.

You're urged to stay away from them and immediately report the damage to local authorities.

"With a storm like this, the primary damage is caused by trees and by tree limbs. So that does a couple of things for our crews: that means sometimes access is restricted or even if they can get to the location they have to get to, you have to clear the way first," said Mike Durand from Eversource.

Margie Foley was asleep in her Canver home when a tree came crashing down on the roof right above her.

"Covered with glass, completely covered. I just got the last of it out of my hair and had it picked out of my head at the hospital. We're good though," she said.

Dozens of schools also closed for the day or delayed the start of classes because of power outages and closed roads.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker reports