By Paul Tuthill
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-991993.mp3
Wilbraham, MA – Public utility companies in Massachusetts are under the gun once again as they work to restore electricity in the aftermath of the freak October snowstorm. U.S. Senator Scott Brown complained that the power companies seemed unprepared. Utility regulators and consumer advocates promised to review the storm response. WAMC"s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.
The president of National Grid Massachusetts, Marcy Reed said she is completely comfortable with the emergency response plan for last weekend's snowstorm.
Power companies were criticized for an inadequate response during the ice storm in 2008, when repairs took two weeks to complete. And there was criticism during Tropical Storm Irene last summer from municipal officials about a lack of communication with utilities.
In the two days after the snowstorm that felled thousands of trees and brought down power lines across wide areas of Massachusetts, the number of customers without power was 340 thousand half the peak number of outages. State officials said an unprecedented number of line and tree crews were on the job in the hardest hit areas of western and central Massachusetts.
Reed remained optimistic that power in all the communities served by National Grid would be back on by Friday morning.
National Grid set up a mobile emergency operations center in Wilbraham where ninety two percent of the town was without power. Dave Ervin has owned a landscaping business in Wilbraham for 41 years.
Western Massachusetts Electric Company said it could take until Saturday to restore all power to the greater Springfield area. Spokesperson Sandra Ahearn said damage to the company's power distribution system, which had been described as unprecedented, has turned out to be even more severe than originally thought..
Ahearn said the utility is prioritizing repairs to municipal centers so that supermarkets, restaurants and gas stations can reopen.
At the few gas stations that had both electric power for the pumps and gasoline in the storage tanks, lines were long and some tempers short, according to Springfield Police Sergeant John Delaney.
A shelter at Central High School in Springfield reached its capacity with 400 people Monday night. State officials reported that close to 2 thousand people stayed in shelters across the state.