Today's Top Headlines

Monday, October 13

Good morning Wypierdalaj,

Hamas released all 20 remaining living hostages held in Gaza on Monday, while Israel began releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of a ceasefire pausing two years of war that pummeled the territory, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, and had left scores of captives in militant hands.

The hostages, all men, arrived back in Israel, where they will reunite with their families and undergo medical checks. The bodies of the remaining 28 dead hostages are also expected to be handed over as part of the deal, although the exact timing remained unclear.

Buses carrying dozens of freed Palestinian prisoners arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah and in the Gaza Strip, as Israel began releasing more than 1,900 prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire deal.

While the nor’easter has gained a lot of momentum in the news and on social media, this will be a mid-level event for us in southern New England. I’d rank it at a 5 (perhaps 6 in southeastern Massachusetts) on a scale of 1-10.

This means our coastal flood threat is minimal (late afternoon high tide), while our wind threat is mid-grade, and rain is on the higher end of the spectrum.

Many spots are already over 2 inches of rain in southeastern Mass., and we could close in on four to five inches in isolated spots as waves of rain spin in from the storm center offshore.

A nor’easter churned its way up the East Coast on Sunday, washing out roads and prompting air travel delays as heavily populated areas of the Northeast experienced excessive rain, lashing winds and coastal flooding.

Heavy rain fell from the Carolinas all the way north into New England.

“The greatest effects are going to be the coastal flooding potential,” said meteorologist Bob Oravec with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

The New England Patriots emerged from the Caesars Superdome with a victory Sunday, but it didn’t come easy.

The Patriots overcame some questionable officiating and an ineffective run game to outlast the New Orleans Saints in a 25-19 win.

After a high-scoring first half, New England and New Orleans combined for just six second-half points, but Drake Maye made some key throws on the Patriots’ final drive to secure the victory.

The October nor’easter bringing rain and wind to New England has also apparently left many New Englanders in the dark as of Monday morning, particularly in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

There were climbing power outage numbers in Massachusetts early Monday morning. As of 6:15 a.m., the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency was reporting 4,195 customers without power. The most significant outage at that time was on Cape Cod, in Brewster, where 1,130 customers had their electricity knocked out.

A large share of the outages were on the Cape and along the South Shore, although communities throughout the Commonwealth were impacted.

A bomb squad was called in to the fairgrounds in Topsfield, Massachusetts, Sunday morning after a person made threats against the Topsfield Fair, according to Massachusetts State Police.

Local and State police responded around 8 a.m. for reports of a person who reportedly made threats against the fair, which draws tens of thousands of visitors per day to the area during its annual run.

Investigators found a person of interest inside a vehicle at the fairgrounds, according to State Police. That person claimed to have a bomb inside their car, prompting a response from the State Police Bomb Squad.