By Abbey Niezgoda
aniezgoda@abc6.com
Anyone who was left in the dark during Tropical Storm Irene had plenty of time to think about what they would do differently next time, from utility companies to a Pawtucket store owner who lost thousands of dollars during last year's storm.
Kevin Andella of Andella's Meat Market remembers it well. Irene left his shop powerless, and thousands of dollars of meat, worthless.
"We were down for five business days. Five days," Andella said. "We pretty much just had to start over from scratch."
It is something Andella does not want to have to go through again, which is why he already has a game plan should Hurricane Sandy make her way to his market.
"We're cutting down on inventory. We've already got 3 back up generators ready to go," Andella said.
David Graves of National Grid says preparations are already underway, including tree trimming and mobilizing utility workers from across the nation. Graves says there is a thing or two he has learned since Irene.
"We needed to do a better job of communicating with both our customers and the state about outages and what's going on and when their power might be restored," Graves said.
It is communication Andella desperately wanted during those five long days without power. This time he says he is not taking any chances.
"If power kicks off, we'll wait maybe an hour," Andella said. "After an hour, we're going to start finding homes from the food and act more quickly."
