Northeast Power Companies Struggle To Restore Electricity Following Storm

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Unseasonably mild weather Monday melted ice on trees and soothed the nerves of those in the Northeast who have gone without power since an ice storm four days ago.

"Finally, everyone is walking around in the neighborhood. It is so nice," said JoAnn Trudeau, 62, of Hooksett, who hasn't had power since Friday morning.

Hundreds of utility crews from as far away as South Carolina worked through the weekend to turn on the lights _ and more important, power to furnaces and wells _ to New Hampshire customers, leaving 168,000 still without electricity. At its peak, the number of power failures in the state was about 430,000.

Outside temperatures soared above 50 degrees, making it warmer outside than inside some dark apartments and houses.

In Portland, Maine, the city hit a record high for the day at 56 degrees Monday just four days after the storm knocked out power to 220,000 residents. Central Maine Power said about 30,000 homes and businesses were still in the dark Monday morning, and a spokesman said it expected to have power restored Wednesday.

The warming weather and wind created more problems in New York as tree limbs snapped back in place after ice melted off, said New York Gov. David Paterson.

Paterson and Sen. Charles Schumer said they were seeking a federal emergency declaration for 16 counties hit by the storm. About 77,000 customers in eastern New York still lacked power Monday, and utilities said it could be Wednesday before almost all customers get their power back.

In Derry, N.H., Tom Guyette was one of three residents of his eight-unit apartment house still sticking it out. The disabled Marine veteran said they were using a propane heater and a gas grill outside to make coffee, boiled eggs and Spam.

"We're still manning the fort. We haven't been relieved of our duties, so we ain't leavin' yet," he said. "There's a lot more people that have a lot less than we do, so for us to take spaces where women and children could be is wrong."

The wait will be much longer for others, such as Meredith Lund, spokeswoman for the New Hampshire town of New Ipswich. She said the utility company estimated power would not be restored to the town for about two weeks.

So far, President Bush has declared states of emergency in New Hampshire, Maine and nine of Massachusetts' 14 counties, directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide relief assistance.

In Vermont, Gov. Jim Douglas was declaring the state's four southern counties disaster areas. About 6,300 customers were still without power Monday morning, said the Central Vermont Public Service Corp. and Green Mountain Power. Officials there estimated it could be the middle of the week before all customers have their power back.

Comments

[LPDe]

11:43 AM on 12/24/2008

Those of us who live in the Northeast could see this disaster coming. Not due to changes in the weather pattern resulting from global warming, but because National Grid stopped maintainin­g the infrastruc­ture entrusted to them.

Since 2002 National Grid has done little to clear power lines of encroachin­g tree and vegetation­. Everywhere in the National Grid service area this hazardous condition is the same. Couple this with no ongoing replacemen­t of old, weather-we­akened power poles and this disaster became impossible to avoid.

OK, Old Man Winter hit with a nasty ice storm. Yes, trees and branches would have come down and there would necessaril­y have been power outages. BUT, the severity of this disaster, the massive number of snapped poles and sundered power lines, would have been reduced by 50-70% if National Grid had been doing its job. Talking with company line crews doing emergency storm clean-up confirmed that they know management has let everything slide.

The scale of economic loss and perhaps the tragic deaths resulting from power outages, could have been ameliorate­d if National Grid management had a true corporate goal to be stewards of our vital infrastruc­ture.

Where has the NY Public Service Commission been – rate increases but apparently no thought about deteriorat­ing infrastruc­ture. Where is Homeland Security? Here is a case of a foreign national corporatio­n owning VITAL US INFRASTRUC­UTRE and nothing is done to insure it is maintained­???? Who the hell is in charge around here, anyway, Al Quaeda?