In Woburn, Most Have Power But Traffic Is A Mess After Wind Storm

WOBURN, MA -- Work crews were responding to flooded roadways in Woburn Monday morning, following a wind and rain storm that whipped through the region. Russell Street into the busy Four Corners intersection was closed, while traffic on Cambridge Street was backed up as cars crawled through knee-deep water and Woburn Department of Public Works employees tried to pump water from the road way.

The storm, which left more than 300,000 Massachusetts residents without power, largely spare Woburn of power outages. By 11 am Monday, fewer than 200 Eversource customers in Woburn were waiting for power to be restored. But traffic in town was another matter. In addition to the Four Corners flooding, which was expected to take several hours to rectify, there was flooding on Commerce Way and Olympia Ave., according to Police Chief Robert Ferullo.

Eversource had almost fully restored power to most of the towns it serves in the greater Boston area by 7:30 am Monday morning. While more than 300,000 customers were without power in Massachusetts at various points last night, the Merrimack Valley seems to have been hardest hit by the storm. In Essex County, 72,192 National Grid customers were without power.

But just a few miles to the south, the power outages were less widespread and, as a result, more quickly fixed. At 7:30 Monday morning:

• Eversource reported that 46 of its customers in Woburn were still without power.
• 183 customers in Burlington were still waiting for service to be restored..
• There were 198 customer outages in Lexington.

Burlington Public Schools will open two hours late Monday. Shawsheen Tech, which serves students in Burlington, Wilmington, Bedford, Tewksbury and Billerica, is closed Monday. as the region cleans up from an overnight storm that left downed limbs, flooded roadways and more than 300,000 people in Massachusetts without power. Lexington and Woburn were expected to start school on time. Eversource has an online form for reporting outages, and is advising customers to report any downed power lines to their local police department.

While Woburn and its neighbors may have dodged the brunt of the storm's power outages, there was no escaping for anyone in the region when it came to flooding, downed limbs, and a nightmarish commute.Throughout the state, crews were working to clear roadways of large limbs that were blocking traffic. Other roadways, including Memorial Drive in Cambridge, were closed due to flooding, promising a nightmarish morning commute.

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Photos by Dave Copeland.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).