Massachusetts power outages soar past 289,000 as blizzard wreaks havoc along coast, Cape Cod

Joe Dwinell, Boston Herald on Feb 23, 2026

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BOSTON — More than 289,000 Massachusetts residents were without power Monday, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency database.

Cape Cod has been hit the hardest, with adjacent Plymouth back as the coldest with 26,510 without power.

The MEMA outage database lists Barnstable and Falmouth next, with 20,000-plus in the dark in both communities.

The Cape was not the place to be Monday. Bourne, Brewster, Dennis, Orleans, Mashpee, Nantucket, and Eastham all have thousands of customers without power. That is a big jump from Monday morning.

On the South Shore, Quincy has 2,645 in the dark, with Marshfield now surpassing that tally with 6,861 outages, a vast improvement in the last hour or so.

On the North Shore, Gloucester has made the list at 6,056 with no lights or heat in a count that keeps ticking up.

Boston has hit the list with 191 without power, MEMA reports. The database represents power outages for four power companies in the state.

Tewksbury has about 120 homes or businesses, and Lowell has dropped off the list just before 3 p.m.

When will this end?

Forecasters agree the blizzard will ease up from 8 to 10 p.m., with Boston on the tail end of that timeline as the storm pulls out to sea where 18- to 24-foot waves are being reported. Now, some reports put the storm easing up after 3 p.m. further inland, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

Stay inside, if you can

The Boston Public Works division is reporting what all the forecasters are saying — this is the meat of this nor’easter. The best bet is to hunker down and wait it out. “High winds and heavy snow are causing whiteout conditions. Please stay home & avoid the roads,” the DPW pleads.

Blizzard warning extended

The entire state is now under a blizzard warning, in case anyone in Western Massachusetts was feeling left out. Rhode Island and Connecticut are also being hammered, as this line of heavy snow has now dropped close to a foot and more. Foxboro is reporting 21.5 inches of snow. And just in, New Bedford has 30 inches of snow with 5,000 without power. (The outage count in New Bedford just after noon was 4,956.)

Hurricane-force winds

Wellfleet is reporting in with 77 mph, Category 1 hurricane winds. Police report on Facebook that they are witnessing “severe damage to powerlines and trees,” and the “roads are impassable.”

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