Weather

Outages, Crashes, and Blizzard Whiteouts: NH’s Mid-March Mess

Update: One fatality, utility companies are reporting 46,000 without power, hundreds of crashes, 18 road closures, lowered speed limits.

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CONCORD, NH — More than 46,000 New Hampshire electric customers are without power as of 10:30 p.m. on March 14, 2017, according to alerts online and the New Hampshire SEOC. Most of the outages are centered in the central and southeastern part of the state.

Eversource reported more than 20,000 without power in different parts of the southern half of the state.

Large outages were reported in Portsmouth, Laconia, Rye, North Hampton, Gilford, Wakefield, Newmarket, Tilton, and Hudson. Other outages were reported in Belmont, Brentwood, Candia, Canterbury, Chichester, Deerfield, Derry, Dover, Durham, Epsom, Gilford, Greenland, Hampstead, Londonderry, Loudon, Merrimack, and Windham.

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Unitil reported more than 13,000 of its 77,000-plus customers without power mostly in Exeter, Hampton, Seabrook, and Stratham. Smaller outages were also reported in Atkinson, Danville, East Kingston, Hampstead, Hampton Falls, Kensington, Kingston, Newton, Plaistow, and South Hampton, as well Concord, Hopkinton, and Loudon in the capital region.

Liberty Utilities reported that it has about 25 incidents during the storm with less than 400 of its 43,000 customers out with outages in Salem and Windham, as well as Hanover and Pelham.

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The American Red Cross is providing lodging for an adult displaced when a tree fell on a home on Elm Street in Newmarket earlier today.

At 10:30 p.m., SEOC reported 262 crashes and cars off state roads since Winter Storm Stella began at around 6 a.m. A fatality was reported in Gilford this morning.

I posted this short video on YouTube using both real-time and slo-mo footage showing all my southern friends that, yeah, it’s a blizzard up here:

Here’s video from the state’s IPOC:

Power lines and wires were reported down all around the southern part of the state including reports from Exeter and Portsmouth firefighters of problems with downed lines. Exeter Police closed Winter Street at Summer Street due to a wire blocking the road.

Livingston Road in Pelham is also closed.

Despite warnings by law enforcement and first responders to try and stay off the roads, crashes were reported all around the state including in Hampton Falls, Northwood, on I-93 in Salem and Windham, as well as crashes on the Spaulding Turnpike in Rochester. I-93 was shut down for more than an hour after multiple vehicles crashed just north of Exit 2 in Salem while other crashes were reported on I-93 in Londonderry.

The New Hampshire HSEM activated its emergency operations center at 4 p.m. to coordinate the state’s response to the storm while liquor stores closed at 3 p.m.

Statewide, 18 roads have been closed.

Poles down on Route 1A in Portsmouth, NH. #eversource #eversourcenh #nh #stella #storm
A post shared by Eversource Energy (@eversourceenergy) on Mar 14, 2017 at 1:21pm PDT

Speeds have been lowered to 45 mph on all state roadways. At least one shelter is open in Belmont and another is on standby.

Crash photo courtesy of Jeffrey Hastings/Frame of Mind Photography FrameofMindPhoto.com.

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