Westfield Gas & Electric was on the scene of a power outage on King Street Aug. 4, 2020 caused by fallen branches from Tropical Storm Isaiah. (HOPE E. TREMBLAY/THE WESTFIELD NEWS)
2,000 remained without power in Westfield Wednesday morning
WESTFIELD – Tropical Storm Isaias plowed through the region Aug. 4, taking down power lines, trees and leaving thousands without power.
By 8 p.m. Tuesday night Westfield Police Officer Joshua Krassler said that the department had received between 75 to 100 calls for service due to weather complaints starting at 4 p.m.
“There are trees down everywhere, lines down everywhere, power out everywhere,” Krassler said. He said five or six auxiliary officers had been called in to assist.
Officers at that time were assisting at the corners of East Main Street and Little River Road and Elm Street and Franklin Street where there were power outages.
“We haven’t had any accidents,” Krassler said. “Hopefully the storm is dying down, and the guys can catch a breath because they’ve been running around all night.”
Westfield Gas & Electric posted messages Tuesday during the storm and early Wednesday, saying their crews would be assessing dangerous situations first, and then moving through the affected areas to restore as many locations as quickly as possible.
On Wednesday morning at 8 a.m., WG&E Marketing and Communications Specialist Lisa Stowe said there were about 2,000 customers still without power. “There are so many trees and so many poles down,” she said, adding that there were big chunks of neighborhoods impacted, plus isolated homes. She said the timeframe for restoration could be more than 48 hours. “I believe we have 15 poles to be reset alone.”
Stowe said overnight the utility was making sure everything was safe; taking care of live wires, supervising tree removals and doing quick fixes. She expected working throughout the day, they would make good progress.
“It’s a lot of damage; not quick repairs,” Stowe said. She said they will be working with three crews of contractors Wednesday on power issues. “We have to work on trees and poles that have snapped before we can make additional repairs.”
Stowe said WG&E requested mutual aid from other utilities in New England that might be able to send in a crew, but the damage is so widespread, she didn’t know if other crews would be able to come in and assist.
“The way we prioritize, after we take care of the safety issues, we look to the places we can bring the most people online the quickest. If an area has 40 homes, it has priority over a cul de sac with three homes,” Stowe said.
As far as safety, Stowe reminded residents to stay away from any place where there may be a line that’s down. “Assume that it’s a live wire always. Even if it’s down, if you’re on wet grass, you could be 20 feet away and get electrocuted. Don’t use your chainsaw, leave it to the guys who know what they’re doing around power lines,” she said, adding that she also had not heard of any injuries.
“We know people want their lights on, and we want nothing more than to turn their lights on. We’re working as fast as we can to get everybody back up,” Stowe said.
The city’s Department of Public Works also had crews out throughout the storm, under the direction of Deputy Superintendent Casey Berube.
“We have crews out but also two contractors. There are a lot of trees down. As always I am proud of the response from our employees and the work they do,” DPW Director David Billips said Tuesday evening.
In Southwick, crews from the town and Eversource were out cutting trees, restoring power and helping citizens. Eversource noted on its website that its automated outage reporting system was having issues “making it difficult for customers to report their outage. This is in part due to the severe weather that moved through the state.
“Ensuring the safety of our communities and crews is our top priority, and we will update you once we have an estimated time of restoration for your area. We know that losing power is a significant disruption, especially during the pandemic, and we will work to restore power as quickly as we can,” states the site.
