Thousands in the region remained without power Saturday evening and train service from Haverhill was disrupted by downed wires in Lawrence, but public works crews and National Grid teams worked all day in the heat to clear as many trees as possible and slowly began restoring electricity.
Train service is expected to be restored by Saturday night.
The following is a review from local officials in three communities about the storm and its aftermath.
NORTH ANDOVER
While the National Weather Service has yet to confirm it, local officials here believe the sudden storm that ripped through the Merrimack Valley Friday afternoon was a microburst.
“It has all the earmarks of a microburst,” Jeff Coco, director of Emergency Management for North Andover said. “This is one of the more powerful ones we have had come through.”
Coco said microbursts usually occur when the weather turns from extremely hot to extremely cool.
“The air basically gets sucked in, one way or the other, and it causes this influx of very strong air,” he said. “It’s basically a tornado.”
He said the last microburst caused damage in a narrow area but this storm was more spread out. Coco said this is “very unusual.”
“I would almost call this a maxiburst because it affected such a wide area, and so many communities,” he said.
“The storm lasted approximately an hour and did a significant amount of damage,” he added. “Massive trunks that have toppled over.”
He said town officials believe that approximately 50 to 70 structures were impacted by the storm in North Andover alone.
National Grid reported that as of Saturday evening, 5,275 customers were still without power.
“We always say it comes in threes,” he said referring to the two other recent storms that also caused devastation in the area. “Hopefully this is it.”
ANDOVER
As of 3 p.m. Saturday 72% of Andover was without power, or about 10,000 of 14,000 customers. Two main stations where power enters Andover were damaged, said Town Manager Andrew Flanagan. By 7 p.m., that number was down to 9,119.
At 9:30 p.m., the town reported that the two electrical substations that provide power to Andover were now repaired but significant damage remained to overhead power lines throughout town. As a result, power outages are expected to continue into Sunday.
Crews were moving into neighborhoods after removing fallen trees and branches from major roadways.
Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield said there were 50 reported incidents of trees into houses in town.
Dispatchers received 200 emergency calls after the storm hit.
Residents and local officials thought there was perhaps a tornado.
The fire chief said he looked out his office window and could not see across the public safety building’s driveway to the curb because of fallen trees and rain and hail.
The hail fall was so violent he thought it was going to break the window glass of the station.
Andover activated its emergency operations center, brought in extra fire and police crews and mutual aid came on Friday night from as far away as Boston.
Flanagan estimated storm damage to homes, businesses and cars in the millions of dollars.
A cooling and electric device charging center was opened at the library and was full. It was open until 5 p.m. Saturday and then moved over to the Andover Cormier Youth Center until 10 p.m.
On Sunday, the Robb Center, located at 30 Whittier Court, will be open as a cooling center and charging location from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Memorial Hall Library will be open beginning at 1 p.m.
Chris Cronin, director of public works in Andover, said less than half a dozen roads were blocked as of around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. He said the DPW crews are working fast to clean up the streets.
“We want to make sure fire, police and ambulances can all get through,” he said.
Cronin predicted the work cleaning the streets would be done by Sunday.
LAWRENCE
According to Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña and Lawrence Fire Chief Brian Moriarty, 33,000 people in the city were still without power Saturday morning. As of Saturday evening, however, that number had dropped down to 4,135.
“There are a lot of trees and electrical wires down, including two large main electrical wires located in South Lawrence by the railroad tracks,” they said in a statement issued Saturday afternoon.
The tree that knocked down wires over the train tracks forced the MBTA to use buses to transport people from the Haverhill station to the Ballardvale station on Saturday. A spokeswoman for Keolis, which runs the MBTA, said the trees that brought down the wires as well as the wires themselves were removed from the tracks during the day Saturday. She expected regular service to commence Saturday night. There was no damage to the track, she said.
National Grid had 80 extra crews from other electric companies helping with the restoration of power in the city. It is estimated that 95% of the power will be restored by noon on Sunday.
The fire department advised people not to touch or drive over any downed wires, and not to run generators from inside homes because of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning. Generators should be placed outside the homes at least 5 feet away from any flue. If there is any smell of gas, call 911 immediately.
The Red Cross opened a regional shelter at the new North Andover Senior Center located at 481 Sutton St. across from the Lawrence airport. The shelter had charging stations and food.