Temp, rainfall records broken Monday: Restoration and recovery from storm continues in region Tuesday

WORCESTER — Crews continued to work on restoring power to homes throughout the Central Massachusetts region Tuesday following the aftermath of Monday’s storm that brought high winds and heavy rainfall and knocked out power for thousands across the state.

By Tuesday afternoon, National Grid reported there were 172 active outages in Central Massachusetts and 2,064 active outages statewide.

But with what appeared to be a fleet of electrical company trucks from Canada parked at the Marriott Courtyard on Grove Street, crews could be getting some extra help with the restoration process, which is projected to be a multi-day process.

Power play Outage map, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency

Bob Kievra, a spokesperson at National Grid, said the company brought in crews from around the country and will often use crews from Canada to help with things like power restoration efforts.

"The weather has cleared today, so we're hopeful we can make a lot of good progress," Kievra said. "We'll be out there 24/7 the next couple of days, as long as it takes ... The hope is we can restore power as soon as possible."

National Weather Service meteorologist Matthew Belk said parts of Worcester received between 2.5 and 3.5 inches of rain Monday. The airport received about 2.64 inches, he said. Last week, parts of the city registered 2.73 inches of rain.

Since January, the city has received a total of 63.03 inches of rain, still short of the highest recorded annual rainfall total for Worcester, 68.96 inches in 1972, but still more than the average 46.5 inches.

In addition to breaking a high temperature record from 1928 Monday — reaching 60, topping the old mark of 57 — Worcester also broke a record for rainfall, Belk said.

With 2.83 inches of rain Monday, the city broke the previous record of 1.79 inches set Dec. 18, 1954.

The impact of weather conditions were felt throughout the region, with a flood warning issued in Fitchburg, road closures from flooding and branches and tree limbs covering roadways.

Some businesses also felt the impact, such as Ski Ward in Shrewsbury that remained closed Tuesday to deal with cleaning up in the storm’s aftermath.

Others, such as Wachusett Mountain, were able to open Tuesday. Spokesperson Chris Stimpson said there wasn’t much impact from the previous day’s storm.

“We definitely lost a little bit of snow from the rain, but we are open and most of the trails of the same trails are going to be open,” Stimpson said.

There was a delay opening the summit lift Tuesday morning as workers groomed the trail, pushing some snow around to fill in gaps. But by about 10 a.m., the lift was opened and loaded with skiers, he said.

Stimpson said as soon as the temperatures begin to drop at night, the resort will run the snow guns.

“We're just doing our best with what Mother Nature gives us. There’s not much we can do about the weather,” he said. “The rest of the week the temps look pretty good at night, so we'll be bouncing back shortly.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Restoration and recovery from storm continues in region Tuesday