THE DAY AFTER
Storm-ravaged RI starts cleaning up while thousands still without power
March didn’t just come in like a lion, it roared like one, as a devastating nor’easter spread damage and debris across the state on Friday, leaving downed trees and wires and thousands without power in its wake.
Cumberland Mayor William Murray on Saturday morning was still assessing the damage in his town.
“It’s pretty rough here...” he said. “We’ve still got trees down, we’re working with National Grid. Trees are down, there are electrical lines in the trees, we’re keeping up with the trees we can do and we’re in constant contact with National Grid.”
As of Saturday afternoon, 4,111 of the town’s 15,354 customers – or 27 percent of Cumberland – were still without power.
One of the areas of town that was struck
most significantly during Friday’s storm was Diamond Hill Road near The Monastery. High winds felled a tree, which came down across the road, blocking traffic on one of the town’s main thoroughfares for several hours. The road was opened around 8 Friday night, but power was still out in that part of town as of Saturday.
One of the major threats associated with Friday’s tempest was heavy rainfall that had the potential to lead to flooding. While Cumberland bore the brunt of the damage from the wind, it seemed to be spared when it came to flooding, as Murray said officials were monitoring the river but “that looks fine at this point. We’re keeping an eye on that obviously.”
The nor’easter turned fatal in southern Rhode Island, as a 72-year-old man was killed in Newport when a tree fell on him, according to multiple media reports.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo toured storm damage on the East Bay on Saturday morning, meeting with Barrington’s town manager before touring Bristol. The National Weather Service said a trained spotter reported sustained winds of 54 miles per hour in Bristol Friday evening.
Across Rhode Island, 114,411 homes and businesses were without power as of Saturday morning.
In Pawtucket, about 3,010 of the town’s 33,637 customers – or 9 percent – were still without electricity on Saturday, according to figures from National Grid.
James Vartanian, the city’s director of administration and public safety, said that National Grid was unable to perform any repair work to the lines on Friday night due to the sustained winds, and thus they began their repairs early Saturday after the gusts subsided.
“From what our (Emergency Management Agency) director told me earlier this morning, there’s about 17 percent of the houses in Pawtucket that are out and, he said something shocking to me: close to 70 percent of the houses in Central Falls are out,” Vartanian said. “I thought that was surprising to me. Obviously, Central Falls is a high priority, they’re trying to get that city back up.”
“I have no indications as to when these lights are going back on. It’s on National Grid,” Vartanian said. From his home in Cranston, where electricity had been out since 4 on Friday afternoon, Vartanian said he wasn’t expecting electricity to return at his house until today or Monday.
As for damage in the aftermath of Friday’s squall, Vartanian said “there are trees everywhere that are down.”
Six poles were felled across Pawtucket, as were numerous trees or limbs that landed on wires.
“It’s all over the place. To number them, we can’t do that,” Vartanian said. “I think we just take this as it goes. This may be a day or two before it’s resolved.”