This weekend's nor'easter slammed Scituate, but as of Saturday night, town officials say the storm has gone better than expected.
"We had some minor splash-over flooding from this morning at the high tide and the winds haven't been bad," Scituate Town Manager Jim Boudreau told WBZ-TV.
Early Saturday, Boudreau said the town was concerned about the possibility of widespread power outages. As the storm has progressed, the town has seen few power outages that have mostly been resolved.
Despite that, the town remains prepared in case the storm causes more power outages throughout the weekend.
Boudreau said that the length of the storm could prevent any additional power grid restoration efforts from beginning until Monday, leaving residents who experience outages without power for days.
"If you lose power, you probably won't see a truck until Monday because it's just too dangerous for those guys to come up in the trucks," he said.
Coastal Massachusetts communities are the most likely to experience storm-related power outages this weekend. As of Sunday at 11:30 a.m., roughly 9,900 customers are without power across the state, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) outage map.
Scituate officials will be monitoring the outages throughout the weekend. If outages are widespread, Boudreau said the town plans to open a building on Sunday to allow residents to charge their devices before the town buildings open on Monday.
Boudreau is urging residents to avoid going outside unless necessary. The town has more first responders working this weekend and have deployed their high-water safety vehicles as a precaution.
The storm is also testing new seawalls installed in Scituate in recent weeks, including some that are still under construction.
"This is the first time [the new seawall] has really gotten hit, so far so good," Boudreau said.
