Raimondo calls for investigation of National Grid’s storm response

By John Krinjak

Email: jkrinjak@abc6.com

Twitter: @johnkrinjakABC6

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — After touring storm damage across the state, late Wednesday Governor Raimondo called for a review of National Grid’s response to this week’s outages–looking at how the company prepared for the storm, and its work restoring power. 

"It’s important to me to know that Rhode Islanders aren’t getting the short end of the stick. Did National Grid do everything they could? Did they follow best practices?" said Raimondo.

She says her biggest concerns are a lack of communication, and the length of time it’s taken to get some customers back on.

"I keep hearing the same thing, which is no one’s telling me when my power will be back up, I’m still without power," said Raimondo.

A spokesperson for National Grid says they understand the frustration, and they’ve brought in hundreds of workers from across the country to help restore power.

"When a storm like this hits there’s a lot of power outages people get frustrated and we are sensitive to that at the same time were focused on getting their power up as soon as possible," said Ted Kresse of National Grid.

But on the Johnston-Scituate line, residents are beyond frustrated, finding out National Grid thought they had power. 

"It seems like neighbors to the north, east, south and west of us all have power, and this is the only block that does not have power," said Gary Maddocks. "We were informed that a technician had filled out paperwork that there was power in this area and it turns out there’s not, we were grossly misinformed, and we advised them that we still had power outages here in the neighborhood."

In North Providence, some good news after a frustrating few days. 

"The power has actually been fluctuating from brownout to blackout. My boiler thought it was coming back on a number of times and it flooded," said Tony Janello. 

The lights came back on for good Wednesday night. 

"Hallelujah," said Janello. 

As for the investigation, it will be done by the Public Utilities Commission.

It’ll start once all Rhode Island customers have power again. 

Officials say it will be similar to the review of National Grid’s response to Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

That probe found some holes in the company’s emergency response plan. 

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