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July 19, 2006

Update: Some could be without power until tomorrow

More than 2,000 National Grid customers in Rhode Island are still without power after last night's storm, and some may not get it back until tomorrow morning, a company spokesman said.

A violent thunderstorm tore through the state last night, knocking out power to some 30,000 customers at the worst point, according to National Grid.

About 2:45 p.m. today, 2,289 customers were without power, most of them in Cranston, where 848 customers still had no electricity, according to David Graves, a spokesman.

Other hard-hit communities include Johnston, 253 without power; East Providence, 207; Scituate, 159; Providence, 151; and Barrington, 172.

Strong winds knocked down trees, branches, wires and poles in many cities and towns.

National Grid has 100 crews repairing equipment and replacing poles and wires, but the outages are so widespread, some isolated individual customers might not have power back until tomorrow morning, Graves said.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Public Health is warning residents to discard any perishable food -- including meat, poultry, fish and eggs -- that has been above 40 degrees for two hours or more.

For more information on food safety, check out the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Web site.

Posted by Jack Perry  at 2:50 PM | Permalink

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