McKee: Rhode Island Energy ‘caught flat-footed’; pleased with crews’ weekend efforts

EAST GREENWICH, R.I. (WLNE) — Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee praised utility crews’ work to restore power over the weekend, but reiterated his criticism of Rhode Island Energy’s handling of Thursday’s storm.

“They got caught flat-footed,” McKee said. “I’ve told them that; I’ve said it publicly.”

The July 3 storm knocked out power for more than 65,000 customers.

Customers reported issues with the company’s online tracker and with reporting power outages through a texting system.

“When we’re trying to figure out what is actually happening, I’m getting several calls from people around the state who have my phone number, and you could see that there was an issue,” McKee said.

McKee toured damage in Cranston and said he put the Rhode Island Energy’s president, Greg Cornett, in touch with Mayor Ken Hopkins and Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi.

By the morning of July 4, the number of customers still reporting an outage was under 20,000, according to Cornett.

As of 1 p.m. Monday, only 160 customers remained without power, according to the company’s online tracker.

McKee said customers’ uncertainty about when they would get power back was a particular hardship during a holiday weekend.

“We know that it impacted the 4th of July for many, many people in the state of Rhode Island and we’re aware that was not something that they were planning on, whether it was food that was in refrigerators, or whether it happened to be just that they couldn’t host the family outings that they had planned,” McKee said. “But I also want to give a shout out to the men and women who actually took us from 60,000 outages down to a couple hundred. People who came in from out of state and people who’ve worked in the state — they were working over the holiday to service the homes and the people who were without electricity.”

McKee also said he’s talking to Rhode Island Energy about how the company could “remedy” the weekend response and “how they [are] going to compensate us and people who have been impacted.”

He did not provide specifics on what that might entail.

In a statement, a Rhode Island Energy spokesperson said the technical issues have now been resolved, but the company is reviewing what happened.

The full statement:

We prepare year-round to respond to storms like the one that hit our region on July 3rd with Hurricane force winds – taking down hundreds of trees and causing extensive damage to our electric system. The temporary loss of our outage map and texting ability during the storm was unacceptable. Our customers rely on these tools for timely, accurate information and we take that responsibility seriously. The technical issues have been resolved, and we’re actively reviewing what happened so we can strengthen these systems going forward.

It’s important to note that the system issues – while frustrating – did not impact the ability of our crews to restore power in a safe and timely manner. We’re proud of the way our teams responded to the storm. Despite widespread damage and more than 65,000 customer outages, we safely restored power to more than half of those affected by the next morning and 95% of those affected within 48 hours. That response reflects not only our commitment as utility professionals—but also as Rhode Islanders who live and work in the very communities we serve.