Dive Brief:
- Utilities across the Northeast U.S were working overtime yesterday and through the night to gear up for Winter Storm Juno, slated to pummel New England and New York with feet of snow and high winds.
- In Massachusetts, where conditions were expected to be at their worst, Gov. Charlie Baker (R) held a press conference at 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning, saying conditions across the state are not as bad as anticipated. National Grid, MassLive reported at the time, had reported fewer than 7,100 outages in its service area, though it had forecasted that more than 400,000 customers would lose power throughout the storm.
- In New York, Con Ed reported fewer than 60 outages in its service area as of 10 a.m. Tuesday. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie (R) told a local news station that the state had experienced 75 outages and called the storm "a nonevent from a power outage perspective.''
Dive Insight:
The predictions were dire for Winter Storm Juno across the Northeast yesterday. In Massachusetts, which expected to suffer a direct hit from the blizzard, the national weather service predicted 2-3 feet of snow, dangerously high winds and coastal flooding.
But now the governor of The Bay State says the worst fears likely won't materialize. "So far, so good," Charlie Baker told the media this morning, outlining a "relatively incident-free night" in Massachusetts, where non-essential transportation had been shut down for the blizzard.
Outage numbers were well below expected across the region. The state of New Jersey escaped the night with fewer than 100, and Con Ed's outage map, updated every 15 minutes, shows it largely dodged the bullet as well.
Coastal flooding could still cause more problems as the day wears on. During Superstorm Sandy, Fortune noted yesterday, the number of outages in New Jersey spiked after a substation was flooded and eventually topped 1 million customers without power. High tide is expected at 4 p.m. according to MassLive.
