Some lights could stay out until Sunday
Lengthy work of power restoration picking up now
BY STEPHEN PETERSON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Friday, September 2, 2011
The Attleboro area is steadily powering up after Tropical Storm Irene ravaged the electric grid, but several thousand customers remained without juice Thursday night and might remain in the dark until Sunday.
While complaints continue pouring in about the slow restoration of power, that work picked up Thursday.
Attleboro had only 690 of its 19,299 customers out, with total restoration not expected until Sunday, National Grid reported.
Most of South Attleboro was back on line Thursday, public safety officials said.
As of Wednesday, more than 6,400 city residents and businesses had no utility service. Rehoboth saw just under half its 4,909 customers with no electricity, coming in with 2,160 in the dark. That dropped from 3,863 Wednesday night.
"Rehoboth is getting power back piece-by-piece," a public safety dispatcher said.
Seekonk still had 1,223 of its 6,286 customers out, with Sunday also touted by National Grid to wrap efforts up.
In Foxboro, 578 customers continued to rely on batteries and backup generators out of its 7,820 customers Thursday. At 4 p.m., 1,100 customers were without power, meaning the total was cut in half in about four hours by the electric company.
Norton had just 98 still out from its 7,345 customers, National Grid said. Many saw the lights come back on Thursday.
In the King Philip towns, Wrentham and Plainville remained in the worst shape, with Wrentham having 772 of its 4,645 customers still in the dark, and Plainville had 371 of its 4,254 customers out Thursday night, National Grid said. Power failures of more than 75 percent were reported in Attleboro, Norton and Plainville right after the storm.
In Norfolk, which is served by NSTAR, only 106 or less than 3 percent of its 3,574 customers remained without electricity Thursday night, with the remainder expected to see the light by tonight, the company reported.
"A lot less than yesterday," a town public safety dispatcher said. "It seems most have power back. It's just a few houses here and there."
A total of about 9,500 homes and businesses served system-wide by NSTAR were out as of Thursday night.
Franklin had been hit significantly by the storm and 976 customers were out - down from about 4,000 Tuesday, according to National Grid.
North Attleboro and Mansfield, which have their own electrical companies, had power restored earlier this week.
North Attleboro experienced less than one-third of its customers out, and most had service by Wednesday.
In Mansfield, about half lost power, but that was restored by Tuesday night.
As of Thursday, Bristol County had 7,466 of its 110,531 homes and businesses out and Norfolk County had 7,109 of its 137,465 customers out. A total of 42,000 in Massachusetts remained in the black Thursday night - about half the number from the day before.