YARMOUTH – Heavy rains and near-hurricane force wind gusts raked across Cape Cod & the Islands in early morning hours Thursday.
More than 30,000 Eversource customers were without power at the height of the storm on Cape Cod.
“The fierce winds we experienced overnight caused widespread damage to the electric system,” said Eversource Vice President of Electric Operations Doug Foley.
“We have a large contingent of crews working in the communities hit hardest by this storm. Despite the high winds were expecting throughout the day, we’re there for our customers when they need us and are focused on safely restoring service to all of those affected by this storm.”
The storm moved in late Wednesday and exploded in the overnight hours. The outages were scattered from Provincetown to Bourne.
According to the National Weather Service, a wind gust of 90 mph was recorded in Provincetown and a gust of 89 mph in Wellfleet.
Yarmouth saw gusts of 79 mph, Chatham 66 mph and Hyannis 64 mph. Gusts on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket were in the mid 60’s
There were also reports of trees and large limbs down in several towns across the Cape. Sections of Route 6-A were closed. Access into Woods Hole was nearly impossible during the afternoon due to downed trees and power lines.
The Barnstable County Emergency Planning Committee has been in consultation with utility providers but said there was no immediate plan to open shelters.
The storm was also impacting ferry travel in the region. The Steamship Authority and HyLine cancelled all trips by mid-afternoon.
Barnstable, Falmouth and Sandwich schools cancelled classes for the day because of the storm. Delays were reported for Cape Tech, Plymouth and Wareham.
A wind advisory from the National Weather Service was in effect for Cape Cod until 6 p.m. Thursday.
Winds were expected to continue out of the southwest with gusts to 50 mph throughout the day.
About CapeCod.com NewsCenter
