This story appears in the Thurs., Feb. 26 print edition of the paper. Number of power outages was updated to reflect the most recent data from Feb. 26 around noon.
A historic blizzard battered the Island this week. Trees toppled from the weight of the snow, power lines were downed, roads were impassable, and hundreds of thousands across the state, and as many as 10,000 people here on the Island, had no power or heat, and some wouldn’t see reprieve for days. By Wednesday, thousands of Islanders still had not seen power restored.
This storm was a nor’easter, which satellites showed as a fierce spiral that blanketed all of the Northeast at once, and produced a blizzard that many won’t forget. Some have likened this weather system to the blizzard of ’78, which dumped 27 inches of snow in Boston and became known as the storm of the century. Meteorologists in Providence and the South Coast reported record snowfall that surpassed the blizzard of ’78, with 37.9 inches at T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick, R.I., according to the National Weather Service.
Some conservative estimates put the snowfall in West Tisbury at only 20 inches, and dependent on drifts and other factors, some accumulations are significantly higher up-Island at 24 inches. New Bedford, just across the Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay, saw the largest snowfall in the city’s history with 37 inches, or more than three feet of snow.
“This is a really bad storm. You know, I was 7 years old in the blizzard of ’78. I can’t compare exactly, because everything was big in my eyes … But I can tell you this is as bad as I’ve seen it,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a press conference Monday.
The blizzard of ’78 caught many unaware when forecast technology and information dissemination weren’t as good as today.
This blizzard was uniquely brutal because the storm came on the heels of a late January snowstorm, the aftermath of which still covered sidewalks and backroads. Now new, heavy snow covers gray slush that was hardened by a February cold snap.
Across the state, nearly 300,000 lost power, a majority of whom were on the Cape, Islands, and South Coast. Hurricane-force winds reached 80 miles per hour in some areas, and heavy snow downed trees and power lines. The winds and snowfall were so vicious that one Islander described the sensation as pinpricks on her face; conditions were nearly intolerable, and required goggles to withstand. A travel ban was in effect in some counties, where whiteout conditions brought visibility down to zero.
On Monday, more than 4,000 customers didn’t have power in Oak Bluffs, and in Edgartown, there were nearly 2,500 outages. Damage was reported by Eversource, the Island’s utility company, as early as 3:30 am Monday.
Olessa Stepanova, a spokesperson for Eversource, said that 85 to 90 percent of the outages were on the Cape and Islands, and text blasts Monday from the utility company said that the blizzard conditions caused “monumental damage to the electrical system” on the Cape, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. Some parts of the Cape, such as Provincetown, were out completely.
Power restoration is a multiday effort. And for a storm of this strength, Eversource estimated a handful of customers wouldn’t have power for three to five days. Though some power can be restored remotely, Eversource crews had to wait for winds to die down, because they can’t be out in bucket trucks in winds more than 35 miles per hour. Snow also covered power lines and cables, and continued to make work difficult Tuesday.
Though Eversource prepared for this “power nor’easter” and expected high winds, wet snow, and tree-related damage, and so pre-staged crews in coastal towns like those in the Cape and Islands, Stepanova said that this storm was rare.
“We haven’t had a storm like this in years,” Stepanova said. “The last time we have anything like this on record that had this many outages and these types of conditions was in 2022.” The winter storm in late January had snow that was light and fluffy, and didn’t cause remotely this much damage to trees or power lines on the Island. Winds in last month’s storm were also not nearly as strong.
Island businesses and municipal facilities were closed for days, and public transportation services like the Steamship Authority and the Vineyard Transit Authority were forced to suspend trips. No one went anywhere Monday — no one except first responders, highway departments, and other personnel who worked to aid emergency calls and clear the roads.
Transportation to and from the Island was still somewhat thwarted Tuesday after all boats were canceled Monday. The Steamship Authority was forced to cancel early trips Tuesday because crew members were unable to get out from under the snow and to work. The ferry line also canceled some trips in the afternoon due to “weather conditions,” as the MV Martha’s Vineyard was the only vessel that could run the Woods Hole–Martha’s Vineyard route. The bus system partially ran Tuesday, but road conditions forced the Vineyard Transit Authority to cancel multiple routes and delay others.
Steve Bernier, the proprietor of Cronig’s for more than 40 years, and current owner and chief executive Andrea Donnelly closed their grocery stores Monday. Bernier doesn’t remember another time the stores were forced to close; even when Hurricane Bob hit in 1991, Cronig’s managed to open for part of the day. Bernier is also the owner of The Martha’s Vineyard Times.
Bernier added, “Just plowing the parking lot is challenging, as there is nowhere to put all the snow, and when cleared, it is drifting back … We also can’t endanger our employees, and so this is an extraordinary circumstance.” He added that the supply chain up and down the entire Northeast was paralyzed, and disruptions would probably last for at least several days.
Other food stores, namely Stop & Shop in Edgartown and Vineyard Haven, were open, but didn’t have power, so only shelf-stable products could be sold earlier this week. The pharmacy at the Edgartown Triangle was also closed Tuesday because of a power outage.
A travel ban that carried a $500 fine was issued for Dukes County by Gov. Healey’s office at around 6 pm Monday. It was lifted by noon the next day, but a state of emergency, initially issued Sunday, was still in effect as of noon Wednesday for the county.
Gov. Healey also deployed 350 members of the Massachusetts National Guard to support storm recovery across the state, and Eversource rerouted crews from Western Massachusetts and New Hampshire to the Cape and Southeastern Massachusetts.
By noon on Tuesday, there were still 220,000 outages in the state; out-of-state resources arrived across the Cape and Islands and the South Coast late Monday and throughout Tuesday. Stepanova said 2,000 crews — line, tree, service, and operational personnel — worked to restore power, and many traveled to the hardest-hit areas, Barnstable, Dukes, Plymouth, and Bristol counties.
“We have Mother Nature cooperating with us today, so we are doing the best that we can. Step one is getting out there and assessing the damage, so that’s what we’ve been doing a lot of today, is getting out there, doing damage assessment, figuring out exactly where our crews need to prioritize,” Stepanova said Tuesday.
Part of the problem was that many areas had high snow banks that buried wires and cables that prohibited quicker work. As of Wednesday around noon, around 160,000 people still didn’t have power across the state. Tens of thousands don’t have power as of midday Thursday.
“We expect nearly all our customers affected by the storm will have power back by end of day Friday, with the vast majority of our customers restored sooner,” a Facebook post from Eversource said Tuesday. “We’ll continue working around the clock to get the job done.”
Power outages by Vineyard town, as of Thurs., Feb. 25, at 12:25 pm:
Edgartown: 117 customers (2 percent)
Oak Bluffs: 230 customers (5 percent)
Tisbury: 114 customers (3 percent)
West Tisbury: 52 customers (1 percent)
Chilmark: 38 customers (2 percent)
Aquinnah: 5 customers (1 percent)
ISO New England, a nonprofit corporation that manages the grid for the six New England states, remained reliable throughout the blizzard, ISO spokesperson Mary Cate Colapietro said. “There were outages on the lower-voltage distribution system managed by local utilities, not the ISO, where equipment can be impacted by heavy snow or downed trees,” she added. Peak demand on Sunday and Monday topped off at 17,209 megawatt-hours, which is well below what the grid saw in the late January storm that closed schools, roads and businesses.