While other parts of New England faced more severe storm conditions from the weekend’s nor’easter, Cape Ann avoided the brunt of it and faced only minimal damage.
In Gloucester, Public Works Director Mike Hale said his department response was “fairly benign” and he welcomed the three days of rain.
He said as of Monday morning there had been zero reports of major infrastructure damage, some trees lost branches and there was minor splash-over from the waves but all in all, the city is “standing in a good position.”
Over the next week or so, Hale said Public Works crews will go around the city further assessing storm damage, which is a typical step taken following a storm.
Acting Police Chief Michael Williams described the storm as “pretty mild” with the most significant incidents being a downed tree which brought some wires down in Eastern Point and a transformer that blew in the Riverdale area. Both incidents have been rectified, he said.
“I don’t believe there were any significant outages,” he said.
The Police Department’s largest concern came on the Back Shore and East Gloucester, Williams said, because as people ventured there to watch the storm, it caused a few traffic problems.
According to Williams, there were no accidents or injuries as a result of the traffic, just an overabundance of vehicles in the area.
Out on the water, Gloucester Harbormaster Chris Lucido said Monday morning there had been zero calls into his department, which he attributed to people being prepared.
Lucido said his office is expecting to get a few calls in the next few days as people check on their vessels and docks while the storm dies down.
In Rockport, police Chief John Horvath said the town was spared the brunt of the storm. However, he said there were power outages and a number of downed trees. According to the National Weather Service, winds of 61 mph were recorded in town while Gloucester’s gustiest was 45 mph.
“There were minimal storm impacts and related calls over the weekend,” Horvath said.
Essex Police Chief Tom Shamshak said his department responded to about 15 storm-related calls over the weekend for fallen tree limbs and downed utility wires, including some that were arcing.
“Most were isolated to the more rural sections of town, like Belcher Street, Pond Street or Apple Street,” Shamshak said. “Those streets are heavy with trees along the edges.”
Shamshak said Robbins Island Road at Conomo Point and the Main Street Causeway (Route 133) both flooded during the peak of high tide at 12:24 p.m. Sunday.
“Traffic was still able to pass at slow speeds and we had two police cruisers with warning lights activated to slow people down through the puddling,” he said.
In addition, a 30-foot cabin cruiser broke free from its mooring on Conomo Point and blew with the winds and high tides into the marsh near Soginese Creek.
“TowBoat US and the Essex harbormaster went out this morning in the rain to assess (the situation),” Shamshak said Monday. “As of 1 p.m. today, TowBoat US removed the boat and it is moored in another location.”
Manchester-by-the-Sea Police Chief Mark McCoy said the town was spared any serious damage from the weekend storm.
“We fared pretty well,” he said. “We had a couple of trees down.”
McCoy said the fallen trees and debris on Jersey Lane knocked out power Sunday to fewer than 10 customers from about 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. until National Grid crews were able to restore services.
“We had to shut down part of Route 127, Summer Street, for about two hours and National Grid responded,” McCoy said. “We had to detour traffic down Ocean Street.”