Fewer than 10 Haverhill power customers remained without electricity Friday morning as a late Thursday afternoon thunderstorm moved across the Merrimack Valley. The storm included a microburst which reportedly brought down 20 to 30 trees in a portion of Methuen near Haverhill’s Ayers Village section.
Wind gusts as high as 70 miles per hour were reported at 5:10 p.m., Thursday, by local amateur radio operators reporting to the National Weather Service.
Trees and wires came down in the area of Hampstead and Old Homestead Streets, Methuen, off route 97, at the Haverhill and Salem, N.H. border. However, Haverhill police told WHAV no related problems were reported by Ayers Village residents.
One incident reported by police was of a tree that fell on lines at a section of Water Street, downtown. As of Friday morning, fewer than 10 National Grid electric customers in the vicinities of Linwood Cemetery and Main Street along the outer Acre section were reported without service. They were expected to have power restored by late morning.
Other nearby communities in which trees, limbs or wires were brought down by wind gusts include Georgetown, Rowley and in Ipswich, where a tree fell across tracks on the Newburyport commuter rail line.