Earthquake Rumbles As Storm Knocks Out Power For Thousands

A small earthquake shook up northern Worcester County Friday as a gusty rainstorm knocked out power for thousands around the state.

A magnitude 2.2 earthquake was felt in the Templeton, Gardner and Winchendon area shortly before 1 p.m., the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said. There was some shaking - the Templeton Police Department said people were reporting a possible explosion - but no damage has been reported.

Meanwhile, power was out for at one point more than 11,000 people across Massachusetts. That number stood at just under 5,000 around 3 p.m.

The worst of the damage appeared to be in Bristol County, where nearly 8,000 in Attleboro and Norton were without power. Attleboro's outages stood at a state-high 5,230, while 34 percent of the much smaller Norton was without power.

Some North Shore towns have been battling outages throughout the day. More than 2,500 in Salem have had power restored after a major outage, and nearly a fifth of Hamilton was without power.

Natick has rebounded after more than 1,000 were without power this morning.

There have also been scattered outage across Central and Western Massachusetts.

Wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour and heavy rain were expected through the evening. The National Weather Service said some areas of the state could see up to 4 inches of rain.

There have already been two major crashes. Two lanes of I-290 in Worcester were closed for some of the morning after a crash near Exit 14. One lane of I-495 in Marlborough was closed after a truck crash near Exit 25.

Patch will update this story.

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