BOSTON – A powerful wind and rain storm knocked out power to over 150,000 customers in Massachusetts Monday morning.
As of about 9:00 a.m., National Grid was reporting over 125,000 outages while Eversource had more than 36,000 customers without power in Eastern Massachusetts.
Pepperell, Hopedale, Scituate, Mendon, Duxbury, Plympton, Millville, Newbury, Southbridge, Norwell and Carver were some of the hardest-hit towns according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency power outage map.
Police and fire departments around Massachusetts warned drivers of hazards in the road caused by the damaging wind gusts. In Braintree, the storm brought down overhead traffic lights at Five Corners.
And in Upton, police said Mendon Street was closed after a tree fell onto powerlines and a passing car. No one was injured in the incident.
The Wayland Fire Department posted that wires fell on a school bus on Loker Road. Everyone was able to get out safely. The Weymouth Public Schools superintendent said schools would be dismissed early after a half day because of power outages across the district.
Other reports from weather spotters said there were trees down in Boston, Haverhill, Westport, Dartmouth, Carver, Hingham, Bridgewater, Canton, Hingham, Spencer, Fairhaven, New Bedford, Rochester and Mendon.
The high winds also caused a temporary ground stop at Logan Airport in Boston, Massport told WBZ-TV.
Gusts throughout much of the state reached between 40 mph to 60 mph. At Blue Hill Observatory, meteorologists reported a hurricane-force wind gust of 76 mph, tying a record for the date set back in 1978.
As far as rain totals go, the towns reporting more than 2 inches of rain Monday morning included Mendon, Granby, Westfield and Ashfield.
In New Hampshire, there were about 50,000 customers without power and Gov. Chris Sununu urged drivers to avoid flooded roadways.