National Grid works to restore power for thousands following winter storm

By Kirsten Glavin

kglavin@abc6.com

@kirstenglavin

PROVIDENCE, RI –

Power lines were down left and right Friday, as the snowstorm continued to hit New England.

"I turned around right at the right moment and heard a crash coming down,” said David Canfield of Coventry. Canfield witnessed an outage in action.  "We heard it and the power went out. And then what sounded like pulling on the house, which was the wires that were coming down on the side of the house,” he explained.

Canfield wasn’t alone.  Thousands were still in the dark Friday evening, and many were not happy about it.

"I got home with my wife after 12 or 13 hours work and I get home – no electricity. Nobody cares about it. This is unacceptable,” explained Providence resident Mike Herskovitz.

For many, no heat, no light, and no ability to cook meant no thank you to staying at home.  Instead, they told ABC-6 they were going to stay with friends and relatives in the area.

"We have friends, we can stay there,” said Anton Shevchenton of Providence.  “Its better to stay there and spend the night because you can turn on the light."

At its peak, about 30-thousand national grid customers were without power Friday, around noon time.  The large number of outages was primarily caused by trees falling on the lines.

National Grid explained that they had been preparing for the storm for days, but were not expecting such heavy snowfall.

"It’s really the heavy consistency, the heavy moisture content of the snow that’s weighing down the limbs and the branches, and taking them down. And in turn, they’re taking our power lines down,” David Graves, spokesman for National Grid, told ABC-6 in an interview.

Twenty crews are scheduled to continue working overnight Friday, and will be joined by an additional fleet tomorrow morning.  But, as for Friday evening, many remained in the dark.

"This really sucks. I mean it’s an inconvenience and I hope it doesn’t happen again,” said Canfield.