500 Hingham Households Lose Power From Sandy

Hurricane Sandy struck Hingham Monday, knocking down tree branches and wires and leaving hundreds of Hingham residents without power.

“No section of town was spared,” said Paul Heanue, the General Manager of Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant after the storm’s 62 mile per hour wind gusts were responsible for 500 power outages in Hingham.

Heanue said the majority of blackouts occurred when the wind reached its highest speeds at around 2 p.m., but  he did say there was a steady flow of incidents throughout the entire day. 

While many South Shore towns are still without power,  the HMLP had restored electricity to all of Hingham by 1 a.m. Tuesday morning and no household was without power for longer than three hours.

“Everybody working here did a great job and once again I’m thrilled,” Heanue said.

The lack of power outages allowed Hingham Public Schools to resume Tuesday.  While Hingham Public Schools were given a one hour delay, Notre Dame Academy students were given a second consecutive day off.

The Department of Public Works were also busy on Monday.  Across town, heavy window caused for a combined 43 incidents of wires and trees down, Hingham Police Sgt. Steven Dearth said on Tuesday morning. There was also flooding along the seacoast.

As for accidents, Hingham only saw one storm related crash in which a motor vehicle rear-ended another vehicle  on Main Street in an area being regulated by a traffic guard.

Sgt. Dearth said many residents stayed off the road on Monday which made for safer driving conditions and easy access for emergency vehicles to reach their destination.

“Thanks for staying off the roads,…traffic light all evening helps emergency crews,” The Hingham Police Department tweeted on Monday.

As of Tuesday, most of the damage in Hingham had been cleaned up.  The Town of Hingham was forced to close Beal Street for the entire day to remove fallen trees and dangling branches.

On Wednesday the Hingham Transfer Station will collect any storm debris from residents.

For a look at all of Hingham's Hurricane Sandy Coverage, CLICK HERE.

If you would like to share a photo of the storm, CLICK HERE.

Also check out a photo gallery and video from yesterday.