Tropical Storm Isaias Downs Trees, Knocks Out Power To 220,000 In Mass.
LEICESTER (CBS) – Strong winds from Tropical Storm Isaias knocked down trees and power lines across Massachusetts Tuesday afternoon. More than 220,000 customers lost power during the quick moving storm. The outages were down to about 153,000 early Wednesday morning.
In Leicester, a large tree crushed a pickup truck. The owner of the truck is a Leicester firefighter who was working at a nearby religious shrine. "Being on the fire department we've been to three of these in a week," said Jonathan Plante. "This time it was my turn. But nobody has gotten hurt that's all that matters."
In Rehoboth, one of the hardest hit towns, a man was trapped under a tree that fell in his yard. Rehoboth Firefighters cleared the tree from the driveway so the man's wife could meet him at the hospital.
In Sharon, a large tree fell onto the roof of a house on Beach Street.
"I was at work and my wife called me in a panic," said Mark Smith, who rushed home to find the massive tree on his house.
His wife had just been upstairs napping, had she not woken up just before the tree fell, he fears there could have been a much scarier outcome.
"Everything else can be replaced. It's a pain in the neck and I may yell a 'God' or two tonight, but I can replace everything except my wife," Smith said. "We've been married 40 years so she's kind of grown on me."
WBZ-TV's Kristina Rex Reports
Crews are working through the night to restore power. Eversource spokesperson Reid Lamberty said social distancing utility crews means just one employee per truck, but there is mutual aid from Canada to help restore power.
"There could be maybe a slight delay getting to a particular location," Lamberty said. "So one truck shows up then they got to wait for another truck to show up as well to perform some assistance there. But I don't think customers are really going to notice."
