Two regional shelters set up in advance of Saturday's powerful blizzard were to be closed Sunday afternoon.
Sonja Sheasley,Barnstable County Regional Emergency Planning Committeecommunications manager, said that as of 1p.m. Sundaythe regional shelter at Falmouth High School had closed and the Nauset Regional High School would close by5 p.m. The shelter at Barnstable Intermediate School,895 Falmouth Road, Hyannis, will remain active until further notice.
She said theBarnstable shelter had received 20 people, Nauset 31 peopleand Falmouth 10 people.
In addition, here's the latest list of local open warming shelters that have been opened:
BREWSTER
Town offices, 2198 Main Street, noon– 5 p.m.
Call 508-896-3701 if you need transportation assistance. COVID-19 screening at check-in required. Those with COVID, or who are in isolation/quarantine cannot be admitted.
CHATHAM
Chatham Community Center, 702 Main Street, Chatham, check hours
EDGARTOWN
Edgartown Fire Station, 48 Chappaquiddick Road, Edgartown, check hours
FALMOUTH
Falmouth Recreation Department, 790 Main Street, Falmouth
8a.m.– 4:00 p.m.
HARWICH
Brooks Free Public Library, 739 Main Street, Harwich
9a.m.– 3:00 p.m.
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PROVINCETOWN
Veterans’ Memorial Community Center, 2 Mayflower Road, Provincetown 02657
Opened at 9:30 a.m.– no closing time listed
SANDWICH
Human Services Building, 270 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich
9a.m.– 5:00 p.m.
TRURO
Truro Police Station, 344 US-6, Truro, check hours
WELLFLEET
Wellfleet Fire Department
10 Lawrence Road, Wellfleet, check hours
Thousands still without power on Cape, Vineyard
After a pushy blizzard visited the Cape Cod region with loads of snow and high winds, many in the region still lack electricity on a day with a wind chill in the minus range on the thermometer.
As of 3:30p.m., about 44,882Eversource customers werewithout power, or about 22% of its customer base on the Cape and Martha's Vineyard, according to its online outage map. That's a drop from 28% without electricityearlythis morning and a marked improvement over Saturdayafternoon, when the utility was reporting 42% of its customers in the region in the dark
Barnstable, the Cape's largest town, still had the most outages at 11,417, or about 36% of total customers. The next towns withthe mostoutages were: Chatham at 7,535(88%); Falmouth at 5,952(23%); Dennis at 4,039(23%); and Eastham 3,945(59%).
By comparison, about 80%of houses and businesses in the regionwere immediately without power during the Oct. 27 nor'easter that slammed the Cape last year.
In a release late Sunday morning, Eversource officials said power to "the vast majority" of customers still without electricity will be restored by the end of the day Monday — "with most before then."
“We know how challenging it is for our customers to be without power, especially in this frigid weather,” said Bill Ritchie,Eversource vice president for electric operations, in a statement.“Despite dangerous conditions like strong winds, low visibility and difficult travel that can slow restoration efforts, our crews made great progress restoring power to more than 50,000 customers overnight. Additional resources will continue arriving through morning to support our massive restoration, and our more than 1,700 crews and additional support staff will not stop working until every home and business has power back.”
Saturday's nor'easter dumped a lot of snow on the Cape, but amounts varied depending where you live. Bourne recorded about 20 inches, Mashpee 13 inches and Dennis 12 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
Latest totals:How much snow did we get in Massachusetts?
More:Sunday print delivery delayed; Subscribers can read our e-edition online
A Truro house on the edge survives storm
An imperiled Ballston Beach house in Truro also survived the storm Saturday. A crew worked Friday to reinforce and stabilize three pilings under the house in advance of the storm.
The house on South Pamet Road, part of which which juts out over the beach, lost about20 feet of dune that washed away from the ocean side of the property during a Jan. 17 storm.
Town Neck Beach areasees more erosion from storm
George and Denise Dube didn’t lose their beach house on White Cap Path in Sandwich to the blizzard. But storm erosion by Town Neck Beach will make getting to the beach just outside their doorstep a lot harder.
Waves sucked the sand right out from under the stairs leading to the beach.. The same thing happened to their neighbors' staircases.
The Dubes estimated they lost 18 feet of embankment in the storm.
The first steps on their wooden beach staircase now hang 5 feet above the beach. Waves also took out a stone path and the lawn at their house.
“The water was breaking over the house. We were right here,” George said.
What the first tide left intact a second tide at 9 p.m. washed away, said George, a firefighter and paramedic from Maine who has owned the seasonal property in Sandwich for about a year.
George said he grew up in Massachusetts and has been coming to Cape Cod all his life to relax and enjoy the seaside tranquility.
But there's no serenity when storms are breaking, he said.
- Cynthia McCormick
How high did they go?
Here are the peak wind gusts Saturday from the National Weather Service:
West Dennis, 81 mph,
Hatch Beach, Eastham, 73 mph
Chatham, 72 mph
Dennis, 72 mph
Orleans, 66 mph
Chapin, 66 mph
Waquoit Bay, 63 mph
Orleans, 63 mph
Hyannis AP, 61 mph
Otis AFB, 60 mph
West Falmouth, 60 mph
Provincetown AP, 58 mph
East Orleans, 57 mph
Caco, 56 mph
Mashpee, 56 mph
Chatham AP, 54 mph
Camp Edwards, 50 mph
Mashpee, 42 mph
Power line damage Saturday in Dennis
Courtesy of Dennis police Facebook
- By Gregory Bryant
Sampling of Cape Cod Times staff photos from Saturday:
