DURING THE heavy winds on Monday this tree toppled over on to a Gould Street home. (Courtesy Photo)

Published in the April 14, 2020 edition.

WAKEFIELD — A powerful storm roared through the area yesterday, bringing rain and strong winds that at times gusted locally to over 50 miles an hour.

While thousands lost power throughout Massachusetts, Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light General Manager Peter Dion reported only two outages, both on the the West Side. The wind and saturating rain caused a tree to uproot near the intersection of Cedar and Gould streets, knocking out electricity to about 300 customers for an hour at around 3:40 p.m., Dion said. Downed limbs on Morningside Road off Prospect Street also took out power for between 450 and 500 customers for about a half hour around 5 p.m. 

While there were scattered instances of limbs on power lines and downed communication lines, Dion said the electrical system “fared very well” considering the duration of the rain and wind storm, and that the MGLD crews were able to manage the situation as they worked as separated as possible during the physical distancing requirements brought on by the coronavirus.

DPW Director Joseph Conway explained that winds really began picking up yesterday after noontime, and by the time the storm system moved on around 8 p.m., a dozen trees had come down throughout Wakefield. Couple with the high winds, the town saw about an inch of rain fall.

About a dozen DPW workers and crews from Mayer Tree Service went from one call to another, dealing with downed trees and limbs.

Police and firefighters were notified of a wire handing low across Montrose Avenue around 1:10 p.m. A tree was reported down in the middle of Audubon Road around 2 p.m. At about 3 p.m. a tree reportedly fell on wires on Cordis Street, with a citizen concerned that an MBTA bus might pull them down.

At about 3:40 police were told that a tree fell on a house on Gould Street, taking out a light pole and causing wires to come down across the roadway. A tree was reported down on another house on Albion Street just after 4 p.m. At 4:34 p.m. police learned that a tree was down on Prospect Street, and notified the DPW. A tree was down on Robin Road around 4:45 p.m. The DPW sent a crew to Jordan Avenue around 5 p.m. after being told that a town tree had come down onto a resident’s property.

A town tree was said to be uprooted on Laurel Street around 5:50 p.m. Another tree was down across Prospect Street around 6:20 p.m. A tree was down in a Vale View Road yard around 8:25 p.m.

Firefighters also went to 55 Broadway at the railroad tracks early yesterday afternoon after being told around 12:30 p.m. that a lightweight car port had been lifted by the wind into power lines. They also went to the old Stylecraft building on Main Street after a cover over a previously damaged door blew off. Firefighters secured the area. A tree split in half on Hickory Hill Road and a citizen feared it would fall on their house around 3:30 p.m.

Due to a power outage, a fire alarm in St. Joseph Church was beeping around 4:50 p.m. yesterday.

By 9 p.m., the storm-related work was done for the day in Wakefield, according to the DPW’s Conway.

The powerful storm swept across all of New England, knocking out power to thousands across the region and bringing more misery to snow-clobbered Maine.

The winds left more 60,000 homes and businesses in the dark in Massachusetts and caused havoc in Maine, where utility crews were already mopping up after a snowstorm knocked out power to more than a quarter-million customers late last week.

The storm brought gusts of 55 mph in Boston and 56 mph in Worcester in Massachusetts; 46 mph in Manchester, New Hampshire; 48 mph in Providence Rhode Island; and 43 in Bar Harbor, Maine.

An 80 mph gust reported at the Blue Hills Observatory in Milton just south of Boston, officials said.

All of New England saw power outages on Monday, but the bulk of them were in Massachusetts. Eversource and National Grid reported about 59,000 outages combined as of 4 p.m. In Rhode Island, National Grid reported about 5,800 outages by midafternoon. Vermont and New Hampshire also had some scattered power outages. 

The good news was that it was a fast-moving storm; the winds died down overnight, officials said.

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