Thousands Still Without Power after Heavy, Wet Snow

Thousands of Rhode Islanders were still without power Saturday night, more than 24 hours after heavy, wet snow stopped falling on Friday along with the tree branches and power lines that came down with the storm.

There were 7,400 National Grid customers still without power as of 5:30 p.m. Saturday, mostly centralized in the heavily-wooded communities of Coventry, Glocester, North Smithfield, Scituate and West Greenwich.

National Grid said that 75 percent of customers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island who lost power during the storm had their power restored by 11 a.m. Saturday.

“This morning, 100 additional crews arrived to help expedite the restoration, with 130 more set to arrive today, for a total of 300 crews working to restore power,” the company said in a news release. “Company officials currently expect the vast majority of remaining customers to have service by midnight. There may be isolated pockets where damage is so severe that it may take longer to restore service.”

SEE ALSO: Snow Likely Next Week for RI, Severity Still Unclear

Customers can check on the status of the restoration in their community by checking National Grid’s Outage Central web site at nationalgridus.com/OutageCentral.

Public Urged to Stay Safe Indoors and Outdoors

“Although the snow’s over and the sun’s out, we still have some dangerous conditions outside and we want everyone to use extreme caution working or playing outdoors today,” said Dan Bunszell, National Grid’s vice president of New England Operations and Incident Commander for this restoration. “There are many trees down that may have wires tangled in them and more are likely to come down today.” He added, “People also need to watch out for public safety, utility and other crews working to restore various services. Nothing is more important than safety.”

Never touch downed power lines, and always assume that any fallen lines are live electricity wires. If you see one, report it immediately to National Grid or your local emergency response organization.

Gas customers need to take important precautions, too. Ice and snow falling from a roof can damage gas meters or service connections to customers’ homes or businesses, resulting in a gas leak. The buildup of ice and snow around or over gas meters and vents for natural gas appliances could pose a serious safety risk because it could cause carbon monoxide to back up into a building and result in carbon monoxide poisoning for those inside. To avoid these dangers, National Grid advises natural gas customers to closely inspect areas around and over gas meters, service hook-ups and vents for ice and snow that could damage equipment or prevent carbon monoxide from properly venting.

So how much snow did Rhode Island get?

Here’s a compilation of reports (in inches) from the National Weather Service:

Bristol - 10.5
Barrington - 7
Warren - 3
Coventry - 9.1
West Warwick - 7.9
Greene - 7
Warwick - 5
Portsmouth - 8
Little Compton - 8
Middletown - 8
Burrillville - 12
North FOster - 11.2
East Providence - 7.2
Cranston - 6
Richmond - 8
Westerly - 6.5
South Kingstown - 6.2
North Kingstown - 4

Photo courtesy: Tiverton Fire Department