Large swaths of Merrimack Valley lose power after nor'easter

ANDOVER, Mass. — The Merrimack Valley was the area that was hit especially hard during Wednesday night's nor'easter, knocking out power to more than 100,000 residents in the area.

The storm brought wet snow, which weighed down power lines and tree branches.

“I have three little girls, so I took them out and try charge our phones, and see if we get power soon,” Melissa Ramos in Haverhill said. “They are complaining that it’s dark, and it’s cold. They’re scared.”

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Both Eversource and National Grid are warning it could be days before the lights get turned back on for everyone.

"You're going to see the damage in the form of downed wires, trees on lines but also a level of damage in right of ways," said Cordi O'Hara, president of Massachusetts National Grid. "Our priority right now is public safety, we need to attend to specific volumes of downed wires and 911 calls."

Barbara Cloonan is one of the thousands of Andover residents who lost power early Thursday morning. Thankfully, she said, she was prepared for it.

"The lights flickered and I thought 'well, this would be a good time to plug the phones in so at least I'll have juice on the phones,'" said Cloonan.

Many schools in the area, including Andover, Haverhill, Lowell and Billerica will not be open on Friday due to continued outages.

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