Heavy rain and thunderstorms swept through Central and Eastern Massachusetts Friday night, prompting flash-flood warnings, closing roads, and stranding motorists across the state.
The fast-moving storm dumped as much as 4 inches of rain on the Central Massachusetts town of Sterling, according to the National Weather Service.
Interstate 290 in Worcester was reduced to one eastbound lane for much of Friday night, according to a State Police spokesman.
Just before 10 p.m., the weather service issued a flash-flood warning for the Boston area that was expected to last until just after midnight.
“Thunderstorms with torrential rain will result in street flooding,’’ the weather service posted on Twitter.
Boston had the potential to get 2.5 inches of rain, meteorologist Rebecca Gould said.
“Stay off the roads,’’ Gould said during an interview. “It’s definitely hard to see flood waters in the dark and how deep they are.’’
Several police departments, including, Methuen, Tyngsborough, Ashburnham, and Wellesley, tweeted announcements of road closings and power outages. Several roads in downtown Peabody flooded, prompting multiple road closings, according to police scanner reports.
“It’s getting hairy out there,’’ a Peabody fire dispatcher said just after 10 p.m.
In Natick, parts of Route 9 were impassable. A couple driving in a Camaro from the Natick Mall got stuck in flood waters at about 9:30 p.m.
“We saw cars were stuck and we tried to turn into a neighborhood,’’ said Cait Sheehan, 20, of Milford, who was returning from dinner with her boyfriend. “His car started smoking; we tried to reverse, and smoke started rushing inside the car.’’
Sheehan said they both got out of the car and knocked on a stranger’s door for shelter. “We are thinking about towing it,’’ she said. “But we might have to stay [in Natick] overnight.’’
In the central part of the state, the rain started at around 5:30 p.m., and dumped about 4 inches in the Sterling area, Gould said.
At around 8:40 p.m., I-290 was impassable due to vehicles that were disabled by the flooding, said State Police spokesman Paul Sullivan. All eastbound lanes were closed except for one travel lane, in order to remove disabled vehicles.
Samantha Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com.
