New England is grappling with one of its most severe winter storms in recent memory, as a powerful blizzard packing tropical-force winds and heavy, wet snow has swept across Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and officials warning that full restoration could take nearly a week. The storm, which intensified overnight into Monday, February 23, 2026, has already caused widespread outages, hazardous conditions, and a flurry of emergency responses across the region.
Connecticut found itself directly in the crosshairs. According to The Hartford Courant, Eversource—Connecticut’s largest electric utility—reported more than 12,700 outages as of 8 a.m. Monday, with particularly hard-hit communities like Guilford, Burlington, and Cheshire each seeing hundreds of homes without electricity. United Illuminating, which serves the greater Bridgeport and New Haven areas, counted more than 3,000 customers without power at the same time. However, these numbers represented just the opening salvo: Eversource warned that the combination of heavy, wet snow and fierce winds could ultimately knock out power to "several hundred thousand customers" before the storm moves on.
Steve Sullivan, president of Eversource’s Connecticut operations, cautioned residents that the restoration effort would not be swift. "Tonight and most of the day tomorrow, our focus will be on fire and police safety incidents, including blocked roads," Sullivan said at a Sunday briefing with Governor Ned Lamont, as reported by The Hartford Courant. "It really will be Tuesday before we’re going to be starting to make significant progress on restoration." The utility estimated that full restoration could take four to six days, depending on the storm’s ultimate impact and the ability of crews to safely access damaged areas.
Those delays are due in large part to the storm’s intensity. The National Weather Service extended its blizzard warning to cover all of Connecticut, forecasting wind gusts up to 70 mph along the coast—a rare and dangerous combination when paired with wet, heavy snow. These conditions, Sullivan explained, are "highly likely to bring numerous trees down onto our system and causing outages." The storm was rated as a Level 5 event, the most severe on Eversource’s five-level scale, and the company had activated its emergency response plan on Sunday, bringing in a "very large contingent of external contractors" and putting line workers on high alert.
Governor Lamont, who declared a state of emergency and coordinated with neighboring states to prohibit commercial trucks from highways starting at 5 p.m. Sunday, did not mince words: "This is not our first snowstorm. We’re in New England, but this is going to be a bad one," he said at the Emergency Operations Center in Hartford. State offices and courts were ordered closed on Monday, and the governor urged residents to prepare for multi-day outages and hazardous travel.
Rhode Island, meanwhile, faced its own set of challenges as the storm barreled northeast. As of 5 a.m. Monday, Rhode Island Energy reported that roughly 13,562 customers were without power, primarily in Washington and Providence counties, according to The Providence Journal. Brian Schuster of Rhode Island Energy warned, "We’re anticipating 100,000 to 150,000 outages. It’s going to be a multi-day restoration effort." He emphasized that crews would not be able to start repairs until the storm’s winds subsided, echoing the concerns of his Connecticut counterparts.
Preparations in Rhode Island were extensive. Governor Dan McKee’s administration said Rhode Island Energy had 200 line crews and 80 forestry crews standing by, with staging sites set up at the Community College of Rhode Island in Warwick, Ninigret Park, and Middletown. Residents were urged to fully charge their electronics, avoid downed power lines, and conserve heat if they lost power. McKee planned a briefing for 10 a.m. Monday to update the public on the state’s response.
Massachusetts, too, was hit hard. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reported well over 100,000 homes without power as of 8 a.m. Monday, with the brunt of outages concentrated in the eastern part of the state. Eversource reported 142,000 customers without power in Eastern Massachusetts, while National Grid counted 45,000 outages. Cape Cod was particularly affected, according to MassLive and The Boston Globe. Power companies and the National Weather Service had warned in advance that the combination of heavy, wet snow and strong winds would likely lead to widespread outages.
"We have hundreds of line, tree and service crews, and thousands of employees and contractors across Massachusetts ready to respond to the powerful nor’easter arriving tonight. Our teams are prepared to work around the clock to restore power as quickly and safely as possible," Eversource posted on X (formerly Twitter) ahead of the storm. National Grid, meanwhile, cautioned customers that restoration times would fluctuate, especially as safety hazards like downed trees and wires needed to be cleared before infrastructure repairs could begin. "Immediately after a storm, restoration times on National Grid’s Outage Central site may be listed as 'assessing conditions,'" the utility noted, emphasizing that ongoing weather could cause new outages even as crews worked to restore service elsewhere.
The storm’s rapid escalation caught many by surprise. According to Eversource’s Steve Sullivan, forecasts initially predicted only a glancing blow, but by Saturday, meteorological models had reached consensus on a far more severe outcome. Eversource relies on an Outage Prediction Model developed by the University of Connecticut, which provides a three-day advance picture of a storm’s likely impact and is updated every six hours. "We’ve been tracking the storm for over a week," Sullivan said. "Yesterday, the models came into agreement, and unfortunately, they really came into agreement on a higher-end event."
For many in Connecticut, the memories of past storms—like the freak snowstorm of October 29, 2011, and Tropical Storm Isaias in August 2020—are still fresh. Those events caused the state’s worst outages in decades, with restoration efforts stretching over a week. In the wake of Isaias, state regulators launched investigations into utility preparedness and the General Assembly passed the bipartisan "Take Back Our Grid" bill, moving toward performance-based regulation for electric companies.
As the region digs out, the focus is squarely on safety and patience. Officials across all three states have urged residents to stay off the roads, avoid downed wires, and report outages through official channels—whether by phone, text, or online portals. Utility crews, many of whom live in the affected areas themselves, have pledged to work around the clock until every customer is restored. "We understand how frustrating it is for our customers to go without power," Sullivan said. "Our line workers, electricians and support staff, we live in Connecticut. We’re going through the same experience as our customers, but we commit to working around the clock until every last customer is restored and restored safely."
With the storm still raging and new outages possible as winds continue, New Englanders are bracing for a long recovery. But if history is any guide, the region’s resolve—and the tireless efforts of crews on the ground—will see the lights come back on, one home at a time.