Severe Thunderstorms Leave Widespread Power Outages, Damage

BOSTON (CBS) – Severe thunder, lightning, strong winds and heavy rain left scattered damage and widespread power outages across southern New England early Thursday morning.

About 40,000 customers lost electricity overnight as the storm brought down trees and power lines in several towns.

"Most of the outages at this time are due to an outage in the Duxbury-Marshfield area," Eversource spokeswoman Joanne O'Leary told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.

In Canton, crews worked all day trying to restore power to a neighborhood after a tree blew down, taking with it two utility poles. When police arrived, they had to run and cover when a third pole fell.

"Just heard cracking, I turned, saw the thing coming down and myself and the sergeant just turned and ran, luckily we were out of the way," Canton Police Officer Sean Goode said.

Part of Route 9 near the Natick Mall was shut down because there were wires on the road.

In Mansfield, lightning hit a tree, ran along the ground and into a home where it blew out power and started an electrical fire in a wall.

The same lightning strike blew out a window in a neighbor's car.

In Norfolk, lightning struck a few feet away from a home on Stacey Street.

Wind gusts hit 69 miles per hour in Boston and reached as high as 83 mph at the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton.

As the storm left, people woke up to temperatures heading towards the 50's, more typical for April than February.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karen Twomey reports