Boston geared up to reconstruct public transportation and reverse power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a storm that left residents and businesses in the Hub mostly unharmed.
Kerry O’Brien, deputy director at the Boston Department of Neighborhood Development, said city crews assessed damage in the Boston area on Tuesday, but speculative damage costs would still take some time to calculate.
“The initial steps are to make sure people can get to work and ensure that businesses are up and running,” O’Brien said. “We also want to get homes repaired before winter sets in.”
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s hotline received 5,591 total calls from Sunday to Tuesday regarding the storm, according to a press release from the mayor’s office.
Out of those calls, the city received 610 reports of tree emergencies and 262 reports of downed wires.
No significant flooding was reported in Boston, a fate different from other Massachusetts communities.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority suffered rubble-covered tracks after trees and limbs fell from the storm, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo in an email.
“Crews worked all night to clear debris from the tracks, allowing train service to operate this morning on all but one section of the Green Line,” Pesaturo said. “A large tree fell on the Green Line’s D branch in Newton and caused significant damage to overhead wires and the infrastructure supporting the wires.”
Pesaturo said bus service would continue to replace trolley service between Newton Highlands and Riverside Stations while crews make repairs, including the installation of a 45-foot steel beam.
Boston University spokesman Colin Riley said a light post on Harry Agganis Way in West Campus tilted from a 90- to 80-degree angle from the storm. Other than that, he said, BU luckily did not suffer any major damage from Hurricane Sandy.
“We were really very fortunate,” he said. “It really wasn’t a huge rain event, it was a real wind event. It didn’t hit nearly as hard as it did in [New] Jersey.”
College of Communication sophomore Sierra Brown said the storm did not live up to the hype.
“I wasn’t really expecting anything big,” she said. “I was here last year at Irene and they made that a big deal and all it was a little wind and a lot rain.”
Brown did not lose power in her dorm room in Myles Standish Hall.
The state’s Department of Public Utilities has been in close contact with private utility providers since the storm to ensure that power is returned to residents in a timely fashion, said Krista Selmi, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, in an email.
“The utilities were told in advance of this storm that the Commonwealth and its people are watching their response very closely,” Selmi said. “They will be measured by their response time and work on the ground.”
Although Selma said power outage numbers across Massachusetts hit a peak of 387,279, on Monday, NSTAR reported only about 2 percent of its Boston customers without power that day.
By Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., NSTAR reported only 1,198 customers without power — 0.41 percent of its Boston clientele.
Massachusetts outage numbers also shrunk to 234,687 as of Tuesday afternoon, Selmi said.
Davor Birus, who lives in the South End, said he did not lose power in his apartment.
“I only noticed some broken trees, but other than that I didn’t notice any damage around my apartment,” he said.
But Birus said he heard a lot of his work colleagues lost power in their homes.
“From what I heard on the news I was expecting something much worse, but I’m happy it was more mild than expected,” he said.
Menino announced on Tuesday that the city would help business owners, homeowners and elderly Boston residents facilitate needed renovations after the storm.
“It’s so important that residents and business owners take care of water or wind damage before the winter comes, and the City is equipped to help in getting that work done effectively,” Menino said in a press release.
Laura Baker, key-holder at Newbury Comics on Newbury Street, said the store suffered no power loss, leaky roofs or flooding.
“We closed at one o’clock on Monday to get employees home safely,” she said. “Everything went smoothly shutting the store. Almost the entirety of Newbury closed then.”
The Boston Marriot Long Wharf did not lose power or receive any damages at all from the hurricane, an employee confirmed.
Kaileigh Mulligan, an employee at FoMu in Allston, said the store did not lose power.
“We weren’t open all day yesterday to make sure that employees stayed safe,” she said.
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