Storm Blackouts Affected About 5,500 RMLD Customers

The following is an announcement from Reading Municipal Light Department:

Shortly after 1 pm yesterday, RMLD experienced widespread outages in the four towns of Reading, North Reading, Wilmington and Lynnfield due to the violent thunderstorm affecting approximately 5,500 customers.  This weather event brought with it significant lightning strikes resulting in wires down in many areas.  RMLD’s employees began working immediately to restore customers affected by the quick moving storm. 

By mid-afternoon, RMLD engineers had assessed the extent of damage and restored approximately 3,000 customers, leaving still thousands of customers to be restored.  The resultant damage, entirely caused by lightning, left trees toppled, roads flooded and traffic signals without power.

In Reading, lightning strikes on Minot St. and Summer Ave. resulted in power outages to 3,000 customers in Reading.  Other areas involved in this outage included the entire West side, Lowell St., High, Mineral and Lincoln streets.  The wires down on Minot St. also affected businesses on Walker’s Brook Drive.

North Reading saw the least of the damage with 500 customers experiencing outages on Winter, Lowell and the Main St. section of town.

Approximately 1,000 Wilmington customers experienced outages due to downed wires on Main St. and Shawsheen affecting customers in the area of Burlington Ave., Boutwell, Butter’s Row and Chestnut St.

Wires were also down in Lynnfield on Chestnut and Lowell St. affecting 600 customers down main St., Essex and the Pillings Pond area.  This also affected the North Reading customers in the vicinity of Chestnut St.

By evening, under 500 customers were still awaiting restoration of their power.  RMLD line crews and engineers worked late into the night to restore all customers in the four towns.