A powerful storm tore through New England on Monday, bringing a deluge of flooding rains, hurricane-force wind gusts, coastal flooding and what will be a multi-day power restoration project. Here's a look at what happened across New England today:
Winds began to crank up from south to north across New England early Monday morning. Gusts of 60-70mph were common across eastern areas. By sunrise, there were already over 100,000 customers without power. Numerous roads across southern New England became blocked by fallen trees, including state routes and even Interstate 95, which was forced to close two lanes for a time in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Along with closing roads, trees damaged many utility poles and wires. This storm has created one of the largest power outage situations in New England over the past several years. Over 740,000 customers across the region have lost power as of Monday evening. Maine peaked at just over 420,000 outages with Massachusetts seeing a peak of just under a quarter million outages. This has already been confirmed to be a multi-day restoration project across New England.
The high winds also caused instances of damaged homes, cars and buildings as well. In Cohasset, Massachusetts, a falling tree hit a vehicle driving down Route 3A. Cars have also been reported to be smashed while in driveways. A downed wire landed on a car in Newton, Massachusetts, causing it to catch fire. A handful of homes have been damaged by falling trees as well.
In Boston, a structure at the MassArt building was damaged. A pile of debris laid near Huntington Avenue. The roof of a car wash was ripped off in Salem, New Hampshire and an apartment building in Hampton had part of its roof torn off. Scaffolding at an office building in Augusta was torn off.
Slideshow shows wind damage across New England. Credits: Samantha Danis; WMUR; Maine Capitol Police; WHDH; Maine Central Power; NBC10Connecticut
Tragically, two deaths have been confirmed in New England as a result of falling trees. A person in Massachusetts was killed when a tree fell onto their trailer and a man was killed when a tree came down in Maine.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled at Logan Airport as two seperate ground stops took effect throughout the day. The first went into effect at 10am and was lifted at 1pm. The airport went into a second ground stop just before 2:30pm as high winds continued to whip.
Along with the high winds, this powerful storm also brought several inches of rain to parts of the region. A flash flood warning was in effect for much of the day across the White and Maine mountains. Numerous rivers have reached, or are expected to reach, flood stage across New England.
Six river gauges are expected to reach major flood stage. These rivers include the Swift River in Maine, the Saco and Pemigewasset Rivers in New Hampshire, the Mad River in Vermont, the Yantic River in Connecticut and the Pawtuxet River in Rhode Island.
Numerous reports of road washouts and water rescues have come out of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Among the hardest hit towns in New England is Moretown, Vermont. The Moretown school began flooding late this morning and about 50 homes in the town have been evacuated. Voluntary evacuations were also ordered in Campton, New Hampshire.
The following is a video of Sunday River Resort's enterance road being washed out:
A portion of the Kancamagus Highway was closed due to flooding and rockslides. A bridge was washed away in Milton, Maine. In Rangeley, Maine, a storm report stated: "ME 17 north of Height of Land completely underwater, no way of telling how badly road is undermined."
From first to last photo in slideshow: Flooding in Stowe, Vermont (credit: Katherine Crowe); flooding in Moretown, Vermont (credit: NECN); flooding in Jackson, New Hampshire (credit: Andrew Drummond)
Along with river and street flooding, coastal flooding became a problem across New England. Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay was hit the hardest as peak surge of up to 3 feet coincided with high tide. Moderate coastal flooding was reported around the bay with roads swamped and some buildings inundated.
Maine's coastline was battered by enourmous waves throughout the day. A rare hurricane-force wind warning was issued for the coastal waters off Downeast Maine as gusts over 70mph whipped the ocean with waves over 20 feet reported offshore.