High winds Thursday brought down trees around the region, leaving as many as 38,000 people without power in Massachusetts.
The National Weather Service says wind gusts of nearly 60 mph toppled trees and power lines.
In a span of about two hours, Belchertown Police were called four times for reports of trees in the roadway knocked down by the high winds, according to David Squires, a dispatcher with the department and administrative assistant to the chief.
Squires said the first call came in just before 10:15 a.m. for a report of a tree down at the entrance to the Quabbin Reservoir on Route 9. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation was called and the tree was removed.
Other trees fell on Stebbins Street, Jackson Street and Rural Road, Squires said. In addition to taking down power and phone lines, one tree also took down a utility pole, he said.
Downed wires also sparked a small fire near McCray’s Farm in South Hadley shortly after 3 p.m., fire officials said. No buildings were involved in the fire. On Pitroff Avenue, police said, a tree fell around 2:30 p.m., blocking traffic for about an hour.
Across the region, two people were killed when trees fell on their vehicles. A man was killed in Oxford, Massachusetts, and another person died in Columbia, Connecticut. Two other people were hurt when a tree fell on a van near the Orange-Derby line in Connecticut, an accident that closed the Wilbur Cross Parkway for about two hours.
More than 38,000 outages were reported during the day in Massachusetts, more than 11,000 in Connecticut and more than 5,000 in Rhode Island.
Following the trend of rapidly changing cold and warm temperatures, weather service spokesman Bill Simpson said, the highest temperature expected on Saturday will be a record low for March 4.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.