Scituate preparing for hit from a rare late-May nor’easter

SCITUATE, Mass. — Scituate residents are bracing themselves as a rare, even historic, storm is expected to hit the region Thursday and Friday.

The Nor’easter is only the third in history, according to The Washington Post, to hit so late in the spring. (Interestingly, the other two storms also happened only in the last 35 years.)

“Good news is, it’s not really the beach season yet, so we don’t have a lot of beach equipment out,” said Town Manager Jim Boudreau.

Bad news is, the storm is hitting just days before the unofficial start of summer, a season Scituate’s economy depends on.

“There’s gonna be a lot of water, a lot of rain, so we’re making sure the catch basins are clear,” said Boudreau. “We’ll send out a notice to our boaters later on to make sure they come down and double-tie their boats.”

Jeff Mutrie was planning to do exactly that.

“It is weird,” he said. “But sometimes we get these late spring or whatever storms.”

Mutrie said the shame of having one hit so late is that the sand on Scituate beaches has never looked better -- and he fears a turbulent ocean will wash much of it away.

Frank Qualtieri would love to see things warm up and sun up, but he’ll just be happy if his business, Rocco’s Barber Shop, doesn’t flood. It fronts a parking lot that’s fast against the harbor, and at least one time, water came all the way to his door.

“I don’t think the high tide’s going to affect us this time around,” he said. “It’s beneficial, the rain. But I think we’re looking for some sun. As a matter of fact, I put some flowers out this week to make it look really nice back here, but now I’m concerned with the wind and things like that.”

Those flower pots looked sturdy enough to withstand the wind -- not so the young trees for sale at A Bloomin Place in Norwell, which had already blown over in the pre-storm windiness.

The lousy weather didn’t stop George Laban from loading up his wagon with corn, agastache, and other plants. But he won’t be doing any planting today.

“Everything’s going inside tomorrow,: he said. “We’d like it a little warmer with a little less wind, no question about it.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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