WALTHAM, MA – Roughly 36 hours after a powerful storm swept across Massachusetts with heavy rains and high winds that toppled trees, took down power lines and damaged poles, thousands of National Grid employees remain focused on clean-up and restoration.

More than 140,000 customers have had service restored since the storm began, with roughly 11,000 customers currently without power.  National Grid understands that no one wants to be without electricity, especially during a holiday weekend, and will continue to work around the clock until each customer has been reconnected.

“Our crews worked in challenging conditions last night and remain dedicated to restoring customers as quickly as possible and keeping our teams and the public safe,” said Tanya Moniz-Witten, Vice President of New England Electric Operations. “We are on track to restore most customers by tonight, and we will continue working until every last customer has had their service restored.”

National Grid had tracked the storm for several days, and was well-prepared to respond, with overhead line, forestry, wires down, transmission, underground and substation workers mobilized across staging sites in Massachusetts.

The storm struck the region late Thursday night, bringing with it heavy rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph in some areas, including in Lawrence and at Boston’s Logan International Airport. At the peak of the storm, at around 8 p.m. Friday, nearly 60,000 customers experienced power outages.

Heavy winds continued throughout the day on Friday, contributing to challenging restoration conditions for crews.  As of 5 p.m. Friday, just over 25,000 customers were without power. That number climbed to nearly 57,000 by 8:00 p.m. following another burst of damaging winds that occurred in the Merrimack Valley and elsewhere Friday evening.  Crews continued to work throughout the night to restore customers.

As of 10 a.m. Saturday, about 11,000 remained without power in Massachusetts.

The company deployed more than 2,000 personnel to respond to the storm, removing downed wires, fallen trees and other hazards in advance of restoring power by repairing lines and replacing poles and other equipment.

The hardest hit areas include Cape Ann and the Merrimack Valley, and additional crews have been shifted to those locations to help deal with a region that saw significant damage from more than 100 poles broken during the course of the storm. In addition, with winds subsiding, we will conduct helicopter inspections of certain transmission lines.

This remains a multi-day restoration event and National Grid expects the vast majority of customers affected by the outages will have their power restored by Saturday night, while there will be some pockets without power into Sunday.  Crews will continue to work until every customer’s power is restored.

National Grid continually updates estimated restoration times for all impacted areas. It's normal for outage numbers and restoration times to fluctuate due to a variety of issues, including work volume, the cause of the outage and additional information about the extent of damage.

The Company offers the following tips and reminders:   

Customers Should Stay Connected:  

• Report power outages at www.nationalgridus.com or call 1-800-465-1212.
• Use your mobile device to track outage information and storm-related safety tips through National Grid’s mobile site accessible at www.ngrid.com/mobile.
• Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram; we post all the latest storm and restoration updates.
• Track outages and estimated restoration times at www.nationalgridus.com/outage-central
• To stay connected during storms and outages, text to 64743 using any of the below commands.
  • REG to sign up for text alerts
  • OUT to report an outage
  • SUM followed by your town, county, or state to get a summary of outages in your area
  • HELP for the full list of commands 

Stay safe: 

• Never touch downed power lines, and always assume that any fallen lines are live electric wires. If you see one, report it immediately to National Grid or your local emergency response organization. 
• Power problems can sometimes interrupt public water supply systems or disable well pumps, so it’s an especially good idea to keep a supply of bottled drinking water handy, as well as some canned food. 
• People who depend on electric-powered life support equipment, such as a respirator, should let National Grid know. To register as a life support customer, call the company’s Customer Service Center at 1-800-322-3223. 
• Check on elderly family members, neighbors and others who may need assistance during an outage period.   

Electric safety:

• If you use a generator to supply power during an outage, be sure to operate it outdoors. Before operating generators, disconnect from National Grid’s system by shutting off the main breaker located in the electric service panel. Failure to do this could jeopardize the safety of line crews and the public. 
• If you lose power, turn off any appliances that were on when the power went off, but leave one light on so you will know when power is restored. 

Gas Safety

• If you suspect a natural gas leak:

• Get Out - All occupants should leave the house immediately.  Do not use the telephone or light switches for any reason.
• Call Us – After leaving the house and reaching a safe environment, call the National Grid 24-hour gas emergency numbers:
• New England:1-800-640-1595
• Stay Out - Do not return to your home until National Grid tells you it is safe.

Reminder: It’s not safe to work in an elevated bucket during periods of increased wind gusts. Our line workers begin restoration work only when conditions are deemed safe. 

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