power outages

New England Braces for Strong Wind, Potential Power Outages

NBC Universal, Inc.

A storm is set to roll through Massachusetts overnight Thursday into Friday with hurricane-like winds, putting utility crews and first responders on alert.

But not everyone is all that concerned.

Renee, a Stoneham resident who preferred not to share her last name, said she's all stocked up on groceries and ready for whatever the approaching storm blows her way.

After having survived the last few storms that have hit the state, Renee isn't too worried about this next one.

"Hopefully, it will be like it was with the past storm, where living here is away from the worst winds," she said.

But with winds expected to reach up to 70 mph overnight, utility crews aren't taking any chances.

"There is potential for damage and for tree limbs to come down on to the power lines and knock power out, but we want to make sure that we have enough people that are ready to go so we can scale up and scale down as necessary as this storm starts to impact the region," said Eversource Spokesman Chris McKinnon.

Down the road at the Mutual Gas convenience store, clerk Susan Berrigan noticed an uptick at the pump.

"It has been a little busier today," she said. "I knew that we were going to have high winds, I didn't know how severe."

Abbey Parsons from neighboring Reading was pumping gas because she was running on low on fuel.

"I wait until the very last minute to get gas," she said. "I had no clue [the storm] was coming, but I'm glad to get it now."

Outages are expected in the early hours of Friday. Eversource noted crews won't go out to work on repairs until winds wind down below 35 mph.

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