“Storm Leaves its Mark,” reported the Newport Daily News on Tuesday morning, as damage continued to be assessed from a storm system that hit the region late Sunday and early Monday, packing hurricane-force gusts.
Hundreds of thousands of residents across New England were without power. In the Rhode Island region, 26 percent of customers lost power. Many are still without.
“The number of outages we have are rivaling the number we had in superstorm Sandy,” said National Grid spokesman Tim Rondeau of National Grid.
“Power May be out for Days in Northeast,” read another headline reported by the AP, as 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power.
“Thousands of trees were toppled, some falling onto houses and cars. In New Hampshire, floodwaters swept away a house. In Maine, the state’s largest utility warned residents to be prepared to be without electricity for up to a week,” according to the AP.
In New Hampshire, the storm left 450,000 residents without electricity and wind-gusts peaked at 78 mph. Maine had 492,000 homes without power, surpassing the peak number from an ice storm back in 1998.
The timing of this storm could not have been worse in terms of risk from downed trees. It has been an unseasonably warm September and October and many trees still had a full canopy of leaves that became water logged, weighing down their branches.
“I have a list a mile long,” said Tiverton Department of Public Works Director Bill Anderson of the number of trees that came down during the storm, blocking roads and taking down power lines.
This was a perfect example of how quickly a rainy Sunday can turn into a problem real fast. What was especially concerning about this storm was that it wasn’t covered 24/7 beforehand. That’s why it’s important to do as much as you can before a storm hits your region.
