NORTHAMPTON — Power cuts from Friday’s evening thunderstorm temporarily threw downtown traffic into a quagmire and forced a few businesses to slow their services.
At 6:30 p.m., National Grid reported 1,098 outages in Northampton on its online map. Among those areas without power were a few traffic lights near the downtown strip, including at the intersection of Main and King streets, which went out around 6 p.m.
Downtown, traffic patterns were chaotic until a police officer restored order about 10 minutes after the intersection’s lights went out.
Power was restored to the lights within an hour, and there were no accidents because of the power failure, according to Northampton Police Officer Michael Cronin.
Northampton Fire Department responded to reports of tripped transformers and a limb that came down on electrical equipment near Market Street, said Deputy Fire Chief Stephen Vanasse. He couldn’t say for sure if that’s what caused the outages.
Up and down Main Street, patrons and employees could be see bunkering down under awnings, waiting out a sudden downpour that began just after 5 p.m. and lasted until after 6. It was accompanied by thunder and lightning.
“Some people want salads, that’s about all we can do,” said Josh Leech, a cook at Fitzwilly’s. He was standing on the restaurant’s back steps, off Main Street, with about a dozen other employees waiting for the storm to pass. The power went out in the restaurant for about an hour, forcing employees to shut down food service and turn away customers. Only the bar area was kept open during the outage, according to Jacob Rowe, a host.
“We weren’t sure how long it was going to be out for,” Rowe said, noting that many customers were turned away, and some even had to leave, because of the outage, which happened around dinnertime.
Elsewhere, outages seemingly impacted other businesses. At the King Street Dunkin’ Donuts for example, the lights were dark inside.
The storm’s severity, and the projected weather forecast over the weekend, prompted the National Weather Service’s Taunton office to issue a hazardous weather outlook and flash flood warning Friday that is in effect through Saturday afternoon.
By 9 p.m., National Grid reported on its online outages map there were less than five houses without power in Northampton. And at Fitzwilly’s, service had returned to normal by then, according to Rowe.
Looking ahead, the Weather Service predicts Saturday’s “main concern would be localized strong to damaging wind gusts including the low risk for a tornado.”
Andy Castillo can be reached at acastillo@gazettenet.com.