By Gabrielle Tassone - March 1, 2010
A series of storms and hurricane-force winds last Thursday and Friday left thousands in the New England region without power through the weekend.
Residents of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont experienced power outages as a result of the Nor'easters.
In Massachusetts, Cape Anne and the northern coast were hit the hardest, and more than 5,000 people were still without power yesterday, down from an original 10,000.
According to the Boston Globe, the hardest hit neighborhoods were Newbury, Boxford, Rockport, and Gloucester.
In Gloucester, trees and telephone poles fell as a result of the hurricane-force winds, and two hotels on Atlantic Avenue experienced substantial damage, while other buildings survived without losing a shingle.
Tracy Muller, owner of the Bass Rocks Ocean Inn in Gloucester, said, "There's northeasters every winter, but this is surprising- the amount of damage."
Parts of the Inn's roof were ripped off in the storm and lay scattered across a golf course.
"There was just severe damage," David Graves, spokesman for National Grid, said. "The number of trees that came down, the size of the trees that came down. They had to be removed. In many cases we had poles down. Lengths of wire had to be replaced."
Gov. Deval Patrick told the Globe that the response to the loss of power has been "coordinated and swift." Over the past few days, National Grid utility has restored power to almost 90,000 that had been left in the dark by the storms.
"I think that they are entitled to a shout out," Patrick said. "They've done a very good job."
National Grid reported that about 700 customers in Massachusetts were still without power last night.
In New Hampshire, 75,000 were still without electricity as of Sunday afternoon.
