(A lightening strike at the North Hill Golf Course on Wednesday, July 18 struck a tall pine tree and disrupted the irrigation system. Photo by Paul Coutoumas)

A severe weather front moving across the South Shore on Wednesday temporarily knocked out Duxbury’s 911 services and resulted in lightening strikes on four residences. “We did probably 17 calls within half an hour,” said Fire Chief Kevin Nord, who called in all personnel ahead of the storm. “911 was off and on, at one point the internal phones died, 911 did, and radios.”

In spite of the communication problems, the four homes that were reportedly struck by lightening were quickly investigated by the fire department and cleared.

“We had four reports of lightening strikes,” said Nord. “Thank goodness they didn’t result in fire. There were a couple with smoke in the basement.”

Those calling 911 were routed to Kingston emergency who relayed the calls to Duxbury Fire.

In addition to disruption to emergency dispatch, multiple lines were down around town, power was out along Tremont Street, and there were two reports of downed trees, including an enormous pine across Mayflower Street that block the road until crews could safely clear it.

The town’s water pumping station on Evergreen Street had its power knocked out, which would have slowed water pressure if not for back up generators. According to Town Manager Richard MacDonald, power was quickly restored without interruption to service.

Not so fortunate was the municipal North Hill Golf Course.

“The irrigation system was knocked out at North Hill,” said MacDonald. “NStar is addressing it now. At 11:43 a.m., NStar was on the site.”