Power outage: Pandemic plan causes National Grid, Eversource response to delay, issue to be resolved by Thursday
Tens and thousands of people in states like Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts have been out of power for 12 hours as thunderstorm and heavy rains lashed these regions on Monday, taking down power lines. Thousands in the states were still without power as of Tuesday morning as well. As the residents seek answers to when the issue is expected to be fixed, National Grid, on Tuesday, said that it could take until Thursday to restore power everywhere.
A map of the outages posted by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency showed that electricity was down all over Greater Boston and along Cape Cod. According to the agency, the largest concentration of outages was reported in Rehoboth, Hanson, and Cohasset.
A spokesperson from National Grid, while talking to WBUR on Tuesday had said that its crews have been following physical distancing guidelines in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus as they rush to make repairs in the affected areas. The utility, however, added that it could take until Thursday, April 16, for the power to be completely restored.
"We want customers to know this will be a multi-day restoration event for some of them," National Grid spokesman Robert Kieva in a statement said. "This was a powerful storm with hundreds of downed limbs, trees and poles. We had fierce winds and heavy rain and some gusts reaching above 70 miles an hour."
While another energy provider Eversource released a statement stating a similar reason, saying that its crews have been working tirelessly while maintaining social distance and other precautions due to the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus infection.
Eversource spokesperson Mitch Gross said, "Social distancing is the new norm. Typically the crews would go out two or people to the truck. That’s not taking place anymore. Social distancing is being practiced, face coverings. Everyone wears a face covering on the job now. And, of course. they’re wiping down the trucks, they’re wiping down the equipment. We’re prepared, we’re ready for situations like this and hopefully the winds don’t become as fierce as the forecasts say they will."
"Restoration may take longer as we are operating under our COVID-19 pandemic plan and our employees continue to follow social distancing practices and other safety guidelines," Eversource tweeted.
Amid the power outage fears during the storm on Monday, National Grid had said that it has had to adjust its workings because of the coronavirus restrictions, however, its local crews and contractors were on standby to restore certain key outages with a pandemic plan, according to Patrick Stella, Communications Manager.
"Sometimes our crews have to be in closer proximity due to the work they're doing. We do have masks available for them so we're doing everything that we can do," Stella said, according to Itechpost. He added that the firm's field crews and the regional control teams were already being sequestered and have been isolated and in place for several weeks now.
"They've been sequestered for several weeks, so they're actually living in the control centers," he added. The company's employees, under the pandemic plan, are staying on-site and have been pulling 12-hour shifts.