Map: More than 150,000 in Massachusetts still without power following nor’easter (2024)

Local News

Parts of Cape Cod and the Islands saw the highest wind gusts from the coastal storm.

By Dialynn Dwyer and Julia Taliesin

updated on October 29, 2021

More than 150,000 customers on the South Shore and Cape Cod are still without power on Friday, days after a powerful autumn nor’easter walloped Massachusetts with dangerous wind gusts and heavy rain, leaving flooding, downed trees, and other significant damage in its wake.

Dangerous wind gusts from the coastal storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands in the state overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning. By 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency was reporting 493,730 customers without power, with the bulk of the outages on Cape Cod and the South Shore.

As of 8:45 a.m. Friday morning, the number of outages had dropped to 163,430.

State officials had warned that restoring power after the storm would be a “multi-day” effort.

“Residents who are not able to stay in their homes without power should seek other options such as staying with family or friends, hotels, or check w/ local officials for other shelter options,” MEMA said in a statement.

Joe Nolan, president and CEO of Eversource, thanked customers for their patience on Thursday, stressing that the company is “throwing everything [we have] at this.”

“We’ve got resources, we’ve got equipment, we’ve got whatever materials will be needed,” he said. “Tonight when the sun goes down you’ll see an extraordinary drop in the amount of customers that are without power, I can promise you that.”

Eversource said on Friday it was shifting resources to the hardest hit communities, including Duxbury and Dennis.

A number of schools across the Cape and South Shore remained closed on Friday due to the power outages, including in Plymouth, Barnstable, Bristol, and Norfolk. See a full list of closings here.

Parts of Cape Cod and the Islands saw wind gusts from the storm that topped 80 mph on Wednesday morning, with the strongest gust — 94 mph — recorded in Edgartown. Damage was especially pronounced on the South Shore and the Cape.

On Wednesday morning, the West Barnstable Fire Department blocked off Route 6A due to major ocean water flooding. WBZ reported that wind damage sparked a transformer fire in Brockton, more than 40 homes in Plymouth were blocked with six trees through or on top of the houses, and snapped utility poles had knocked out power to much of the town.

Gas stations across the South Shore saw long lines as people from the area and the Cape sought out fuel, sometimes hours from home, WHDH reports.

Duxbury took a beating; trees crushed homes and cars and blocked numerous roadways. By Wednesday afternoon, 94% of the town was still without power, according to police, and people were asked to stay off the roads.

The Duxbury Fire Department tweeted that it answered over 1,000 calls for service in 24 hours.

The devastation was evident across the South Shore: the top of a Quincy apartment building was ripped off by strong winds, a high school football field press box was splintered in Cohasset, and in Milton, a tree fell onto a home just above a room where a child was sleeping (no one was hurt), according to WBZ.

“Something extreme happened in order to cause this much damage,” James Marathas, executive director of the Quincy Housing Authority, told WHDH.

Flooding began on Monday in parts of the South Shore, and big waves were crashing over the beachside road in Revere on Wednesday morning. Waves were still hitting Scituate roads when Governor Charlie Baker visited to assess the storm damage Wednesday morning.

Boston also saw some damage: a tree in Beacon Hill ripped up the brick sidewalk when it was uprooted by strong wind, and sidewalks were also broken by downed trees in Dorchester.

Trees also took out some power lines on the North shore.