Photo: Photo Courtesy of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency
Updated 10:47 a.m., 1/30/2022
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Sunday morning at 10:47 a.m., with snowfall coming to a halt, over 50,000 customers were still without power according to Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
Tens of thousands of Massachusetts residents were without power Saturday afternoon as the state saw its largest winter storm in years.
According to MEMA, there were more than 106,000 residents without power as of 4:40 p.m. Saturday, with the worsts outages on the South Shore and the Cape. Barnstable saw nearly 75% of customers without power, with Orleans seeing nearly 65% without power.
Earlier, at 3:45 p.m., there nearly 117,000 customers without power.
MEMA is urging the public to avoid downed power lines and assume they are live. The agency also says residents should call 9-1-1 to report any downed lines, and to call your utility company to report outages. The agency says generators should be kept outside, and away from the building.
Eversource says more than 1,000 line and tree crews are responding to damage brought on by the storm. As of 3 p.m. on Saturday, Eversource said power was restored to 161,000 customers, including some who had lost power multiple times.
“We are still in the thick of a major storm that has created blizzard conditions in parts of our area, and despite those difficult conditions in the field, our crews continue restoring power and making system repairs when it is safe to do so, while our remote system operators use distribution automation technology like smart switches to isolate outages and reroute power to customers,” Eversource Vice President for Electric Operations Bill Ritchie said. “The strong winds can prevent our crews from going up in the bucket to make repairs, and hazardous road conditions are slowing our access to trouble spots. We appreciate our customers’ patience as we focus on maintaining safety, and. we will not stop until every last customer has been restored.”
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