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President Trump broke his own record for the longest State of the Union address last night. In case you missed it, here are five takeaways from the speech. NPR also has an annotated fact check of Trump’s remarks on everything from immigration to the economy to foreign policy. Or, if you have 108 minutes of free time on your hands today, you can watch the speech in full here.
Now to local news:
Dig out, dig in: An international emergency food relief agency is on Cape Cod today to help prepare meals for people affected by Monday’s monster storm. WBUR’s Deborah Becker reports that chefs from World Central Kitchen are helping cook meals for those in shelters and warming centers, as thousands on the Cape remain without electricity. The nonprofit, founded by restaurateur José Andrés, is known for its work helping in the wake of natural disasters and in war-torn places like Ukraine and Gaza. Now, they’re helping out on the Cape, working with the nonprofit Family Table Collaborative to provide food. The collaborative’s executive director, Jeni Wheeler, told Deb they expect to serve 5,000 to 6,000 daily meals over the next few days.
- Zoom out: The number of power outages statewide is around 160,000 this morning. That’s down from nearly 300,000 at the peak of the storm. At one point, there were 150,000 outages on Cape Cod alone.
- Zoom in: Some Outer Cape communities, like Provincetown, had gone 100% without power for over 24 hours. Town Manager Alex Morse told WBUR’s Fausto Menard that dozens of people have been sleeping overnight in Provincetown’s community center. Morse said Eversource crews have had a tough time accessing power lines, but he’s hoping for more progress today. “Because the storm didn’t hit western Mass and New Hampshire and Connecticut as hard as they expected, they’re able to shift more resources to the Cape,” he said. “But we’re hoping that turns into seeing some restoration in the near future, because we see a crew here and there. But we haven’t seen as much of a presence as we want to see.”
- Meanwhile: Gov. Maura Healey lifted the travel ban for southeastern counties yesterday at noon. However, she urged people in hard-hit areas to continue to stay home if possible to allow crews to work. (FYI: State Police told WBUR’s Ally Jarmanning that no citations were given out for travel ban violations.)
- Go deeper: For more scenes from the recovery on Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts, read this triple-bylined story from WBUR’s Eve Zuckoff, Patrick Madden and Chris Van Buskirk. You can also click here for more photos of the big dig-out from all around Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Back to normal-ish: The MBTA says regular service should resume today for most of the system. That is except on the Fall River/New Bedford line, which will continue on a limited schedule, because, well… have you seen those South Coast snow totals?
- Boston Public Schools are also reopening today. (That sound you hear is thousands of local parents rejoicing.) But you don’t have to drive too far south before you run into communities on their third straight snow day. Schools in Quincy, Brockton, Randolph, Plymouth, Weymouth and all up and down the South Shore and Cape are closed today. See the full list of closures here.
North of the border: New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte says ICE is scrapping plans to turn an old warehouse in Merrimack into a detention center. The Republican governor broke the news yesterday, saying she personally spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about it during a trip to Washington, D.C., last week.
P.S.— Snow is back in the forecast today, but fortunately a lot less than Monday. Danielle Noyes has the details on the relative dusting many of us will get (plus a look at some of the most incredible numbers from Monday’s storm) here.
