Downtown Loses Power Due To Same Cable That Failed In Stroll Outage

A manhole cover was blown five feet into the air on South Water Street on Thursday afternoon, and then a large portion of downtown Nantucket lost power.

For the second time in less than a year, a cable failure left downtown businesses and property owners without electricity, and it was due to the same section of cable that failed during the December 2024 outage of Christmas Stroll weekend, according to National Grid sources.

More than 1,235 National Grid customers were without electricity around 2 p.m. on Thursday. But National Grid crews responded promptly, and were able to restore power within three hours - far less than the 27-hour blackout during Christmas Stroll last year.

A member of the National Grid crew told the Current that power was restored more quickly this time due to upgrades and repairs that were made during the spring to the underground infrastructure on South Water Street.