CHATHAM, Mass. — As the sunset and temperatures dropped, Mary McCarthy packed up her SUV and headed to a hotel. The longtime Chatham resident lost power Saturday around 8:30 a.m. and said there was no way she could spend another night inside her cold, dark house.
“It’s below 40 [degrees] in my house,” McCarthy said. “It was so cold last night, I had to hunker down under the blankets and just [poke] my nose out,” McCarthy said.
More than half of Chatham’s 8,554 Eversource customers remained without power as of 7 p.m. Sunday, according to MEMA’s outage map.
Eversource estimated Chatham, Brewster, Dennis, Eastham, and Falmouth wouldn’t be fully restored until 6 p.m. Monday. Barnstable wouldn’t have all the lights turned back on until close to midnight Tuesday, Eversource said.
“We currently have more than 1,700 crews working on restoration efforts in Massachusetts, with a focus on southeastern MA, Cape Cod, and Martha’s Vineyard. Throughout the storm, we have restored more than 250,000 customers, including tens of thousands today,” Eversource spokesperson Chris McKinnon said in an email.
Chatham Town Manager Jill Goldsmith said Sunday more than 50 residents took advantage of a warming station in the Chatham Community Center.
“This storm has been really challenging,” Goldsmith said. “It seems to be something with the mainline coming into town. We’ve got an Eversource representative on-site with assurances it’s being addressed. If you drive around town we have a ton of Eversource trucks and their contractors so I’m hoping they’re able to get everything restored.”
For a town notorious for losing power after a big storm, McCarty said it might be time to invest in a backup.
“It’s been on my list for four years to get a generator, so I think it’s definitely [time to get one],” McCarthy said.