Power Outage Affected Hundreds of West Peabody Homes

A large portion of West Peabody was without power for a time Thursday night after a tree fell and broke a pole, dropping wires and a transformer.

According to Peabody Police at the time, "live wires have been deenergized The area of Lowell Street at Birch is impassable to foot and vehicular traffic."

Later, a spokesman at Peabody Municipal Light Plant reported that four poles at Birch Street and one on Lowell Street were down and that between 8 and 9 p.m., a number of customers in the upper hundreds - possibly 600 to 800 - had blackouts. By 9:45 p.m. many surrounding streets reportedly had their power back. 

The small area without power was said to be in the immediate area where the poles themselves were down, and the spokesman indicated that "we're looking at a long night" before the work is complete.