A powerful storm slammed New England Monday with torrential rains and strong winds, causing at least two deaths as well as widespread damage, halting flights at Logan International Airport for several hours, and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.
Across the region, ferocious winds toppled trees and powerlines and littered streets with debris while heavy rain caused coastal flooding and made some roads impassable.
In Hanover, Mass., an 89-year-old man died when “high winds and rain” caused a tree to collapse around 9:47 a.m., trapping him inside a trailer on Industrial Way, said Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz’s office.
In Windham, Maine, a 40-year-old man was fatally struck by a part of a tree while clearing debris from his roof, WMTW-TV reported.
In Bartlett, N.H., the Saco River rose about 10 feet. South of Boston in Scituate widespread power outages forced officials to close schools on Tuesday, while in Clinton, Maine, winds tore the roof off a tractor-trailer. In Ashfield, just east of the Berkshires, nearly 5 inches of rain fell.
Flooding was so intense in Providence that the waves forced the gates off a storm drain. And in Somerville, murky water overtook at least one neighborhood street, where water lapped at car tires and trash barrels were haphazardly knocked over.
In Holbrook, Mass. a large tree fell onto a pickup truck, trapping the driver inside shortly after 11 a.m. outside a home on Maywood Road, police said. Firefighters used hydraulic rescue tools to free the man from the truck’s cab. No details about his injuries were released.
In Upton, the town’s wastewater department reported a sanitary sewer overflow at 11:45 a.m. that was expected to continue into Monday night. An estimated 25,000 gallons of partially-treated sewage was being discharged from the town’s wastewater treatment facility into an unnamed tributary of the West River throughout the overflow, the department said in a statement.
In Maine, ski resorts Sunday River and Sugarloaf announced they would close Tuesday as they assess and repair roads, infrastructure, and equipment damaged by the storm, according to social media posts. Bretton Woods and Loon Mountain in New Hampshire also said they will close skiing operations Tuesday.
Power outages across New England peaked at around 700,000 by early afternoon. By Tuesday morning, hundreds of thousands remained without power across the region. In Maine, 429,199 power outages were reported, more than half of the 852,082 customers tracked in the state. In Massachusetts, 135,302 customers remained without power, while 8,207 Rhode Island customers and 3,135 in New Hampshire remained in the dark.
There had been more than 100 flight cancellations at Logan, the majority of which were from Cape Air, which uses smaller aircraft and halts flights in strong winds, said Jennifer Mehigan, a spokesperson for Massport.
The tally had risen to 224 by late Monday night, according to Flight Aware, an aviation monitoring website.
On an unusually warm December day, the storm caused damage to buildings and homes across the region, and debris fell from a building at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, officials said. No one was injured.
In Wellesley, there was flooding and fallen trees, especially on Route 9, said Meghan Jop, the town’s executive director.
In Boston shortly after 8 a.m., police responded to an accident at 33 Whales St. in Dorchester where a tree had fallen on two vehicles while they were moving, officials said.
”It struck one vehicle in the front and another in the rear,” a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department said. One of the vehicles included a mother and her two children, and the other had one occupant, police said. All four people sustained minor injuries.
In Cohasset, police asked residents to stay inside and off the roads so crews can remove fallen power lines, trees, and branches. A mother and her infant each suffered minor injuries after a large tree branch fell on their car that was traveling south on Route 3A.
Even as the storm passed through, the National Weather Service warned about coastal flooding in Rhode Island, especially at high tide. In Providence, forecasters said the water level in Fox Point was approaching 10 feet, the highest since Hurricane Bob in 1991.
The National Weather Service reported moderate flooding on the Charles River in Dover and minor flooding of the Sudbury River in Framingham, the Nashua River in Fitchburg, the Nashua River in East Pepperell, the Shawsheen River in Andover, the Neponset River in Norwood, and the Taunton River near Bridgewater as of about 5:45 p.m.
In Western Massachusetts, moderate flooding was reported on the Connecticut River in Northampton, the Deerfield River in West Deerfield, and the Hoosic River near Williamstown, according to the weather service. Minor flooding was also reported on the Connecticut River in Montague, the Deerfield River in Charlemont, the Housatonic River in Pittsfield, and the Westfield River in Westfield.
Downed trees and flooding wreaked havoc on the roads. In Hamilton, toppled trees pulled down wires on Highland Street and Chebacco Road, which were shut down indefinitely.
“We don’t have an estimate when these will be cleared,” police said.
In New Hampshire, heavy rainfall prompted road closures in Carroll, Grafton, and Coos counties and officials in Campton called for a voluntary evacuation of certain areas near a dam along the Mad River as a precaution.
“The NH Dam Bureau is on its way for an inspection of the Campton Dam,” officials said.
In Portsmouth, gusts reached 54 miles per hour. Shortly after noon, Eversource, the state’s largest electricity provider, reported that nearly 24,000 customers were affected by power outages. The winds were particularly damaging in the Seacoast region, and officials warned that waters would continue to rise.
“Even after the rain stops rivers will continue to crest into Tuesday, so take precautions now as no one is immune from the potential for flooding from this storm,” Governor Chris Sununu said in a statement. “Respect barriers and stay safe by avoiding flooded roadways. Give hard working crews plenty of space to do their jobs as they restore power and clear debris from roads.”
In Milton, meanwhile, a wind gust of 90 miles per hour was recorded at the Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center shortly after 11:30 a.m. Wind gusts of 68 miles per hour were reported in Boston and 67 miles per hour in Norwood, officials said.
Eversource said crews were working to remove downed trees and restore power lines.
“Our crews have cleared 20 tree-blocked roads since the powerful winds started whipping across the state last night and we’re continuing to work closely with our public safety partners to make our communities safe,” Eversource posted on social media.
National Grid reported it was bringing in extra crews to help accelerate power restoration.
The storm left a path of flooding, power outages, and tree damage as it tore up the East Coast. Heavy rain and high tides caused flooding along the Jersey Shore and in suburban Philadelphia. High winds forced the closure of the Verrazzano Bridge briefly in New York City. Officials and merchants were recovering from heavy damage in some spots of Charleston, S.C., after the tide in Charleston Harbor reached its fourth-highest reading ever.
“This was a tough and frustrating day for our citizens, as historic high tides came up and over the land in the city, flooding cars, homes, businesses and streets,” Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said, adding there were no reports of serious injuries.
Shanna Kelly, Shannon Larson, and Emily Sweeney of the Globe staff, Correspondent Talia Lissauer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe. Marianne Mizera can be reached at marianne.mizera@globe.com. Follow her @MareMizera. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.