The effort to completely restore power in Massachusetts following a powerful storm could take multiple days, according to two of the three major utility providers in the state.The storm brought heavy rainfall to New England along with wind gusts that came close to, and in one case exceeded, hurricane force. The region experienced downed trees, limbs, utility poles and power lines from Sunday evening throughout the day on Monday.Info: Check school closings, delaysEversource said that as of 1 p.m. Tuesday, the company had restored power to more than 195,000 customers in Massachusetts and was still working to restore power to about 27,000 customers who had lost it during the storm.According to Eversource, the company expects to complete power restoration for most of its customers by 11 p.m. Wednesday with the expectation that many Eversource customers will have their power restored before then due to the hundreds of line and tree crews working around the clock.”Despite widespread damage in the hardest hit areas in MetroWest and south of Boston we have made great restoration progress (Tuesday) and have strategically assigned crews to get the power back on for our remaining customers as quickly as safely possible,” Eversource President of Regional Electric Operations Craig Hallstrom said in a statement. “We expect the outage numbers to continue coming down throughout the day as we cleanup and repair storm damage. Our men and women in the field and our team behind the scenes will be working nonstop until the lights are back on for everyone.”National Grid said Tuesday that crews worked overnight to restore power to the nearly 130,000 customers since the storm tore through the region and knocked out power to more than 279,000 of the company’s Massachusetts customers at some point.As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, National Grid said approximately 70,000 of its Massachusetts customers were without power with the highest concentration of outages in Bristol, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth and Worcester counties.“Our crews have been working tirelessly to restore service as quickly and as safely as we can, and we’ve made a lot of progress – but there is a long way to go,” said Tim Moore, vice president for Electric Operations for New England. “This storm caused a lot of damage largely across eastern Massachusetts, and we have crews focused on the hardest hit locations. We recognize that this is a challenging time of year to lose power as everyone is preparing for the holidays, but we’ll continue to work until every last customer is restored.”The company has secured additional crews, including from New York and Canada, who will be working for as long as needed to restore service as quickly and safely as conditions allow.As of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reported that 66,029 customers of Eversource, National Grid and Unitil throughout the state were still without power.Video below: Cleanup efforts continue after storm downs trees, power lines Unitil said that as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, it had restored power to more than 99% of customers who had lost it across all of the company’s service territories in New England.According to Unitil, approximately 11,600 of its customers were without power at the storm’s peak. The company said normal operations resumed in Massachusetts and the region of Concord, New Hampshire, Monday afternoon.The wind damage was more severe along the New Hampshire Seacoast, however, where Unitil said some some individual service issues and isolated pockets of customer outages remain. Unitil said it expects total power restoration to be reached Wednesday. “We understand this has been a very difficult time for our customers, especially with Christmas holiday only a week away,” Unitil Media Relations Manager Alec O’Meara said. “Our crews have worked around the clock restoring power to tens of thousands of customers who lost power during Monday’s high winds and we have a fresh compliment of crews blanketing the Seacoast this morning who will continue to work until all outages are restored. We appreciate the tireless work of our crews, municipal officials and the patience of our customers during this restoration process.”Related content:

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