Strong winds on Monday and Tuesday left hundreds of homes throughout Hampshire County without power.
The National Weather Service continued its wind advisory until 5 p.m. Wednesday, with the possibility of wind gusts up to 40 to 50 mph.
In Southampton on Tuesday morning, there were 307 reported power outages or 12 percent of the town, according to Eversource. The company estimated that power would be restored by 5 p.m, according to its online power outage map.
However, as of 10 p.m., there were still 101 residences without power, the most of any Eversource town in the region.
While towns such as Amherst, Hadley, and Northampton each had fewer than 50 reported outages, the Hilltowns were hit much harder. In Chesterfield there were 273 reported outages or nearly 40 percent of the town Tuesday; in Cummington there were 256 reported outages or 42 percent of the town; and in Worthington there were 137 reported outages or 19 percent of the town, according to the Eversource website as of 12:30 p.m.
“We’ve had a lot of outages in the Hilltowns,” Priscilla Ress, spokeswoman for Eversource, said Tuesday morning. The utility company was sending 40 crews into western Massachusetts, Ress said, to help with the restoration effort.
Utility workers who go 40 feet up into the air on the boom of a bucket truck to repair utility lines were having difficulty with the strong winds, Ress said.
Southampton police reported that several streets were closed due to downed trees, power lines and utility poles at several locations throughout town on Tuesday morning.
Police in Northampton and Amherst reported that no roads were closed.
But Amherst Police handled 29 calls in which trees and branches were knocked down between Monday and Tuesday morning. The most significant incidents included a large pine tree causing extensive damage to a portion of a home on Glendale Road at 4:32 p.m. Monday, a tree falling onto a truck on East Pleasant Street at 10:08 a.m. Monday, and a branch smashing a car’s windshield on West Street at 1:42 p.m.
Northampton Police meanwhile, handled 32 reports of downed trees and branches, as well 20 electrical hazards on Monday. One electrical hazard call involved a Salem man colliding with hanging wires on Vernon Street and being taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital after striking his head as a result of the crash.
Luis Fieldman can be reached at lfieldman@gazettenet.com