Columbia Gas Says It Has Paid Out $19.8M In Merrimack Valley

ANDOVER, MA -- Columbia Gas of Massachusetts released claims statistcs Friday showing it has paid out $19.8 million to residents and businesses in Andover, Lawrence and North Andover that were impacted by the Sept. 13 gas explosions. To date, the company has received 20,831 claims, with 71.9% of those claims still outstanding.

A National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report released earlier this month placed blame for last month's gas explosions that killed one and damaged or destroyed 131 buildings in the Merrimack Valley on the utility, which is a unit of NiSource. The report showed that Columbia Gas signed off on a work order that allowed for pressure to increase in transmission lines, which set off a series of explosions and forced the evacuation of thousands from the three communities.

Thousands of residents remain without gas service as the utility works to restore service in the three communities. As of Thursday, Columbia Gas had placed 1,829 families in temporary housing. The company said it remains on track to meet a November 19 deadline to fully restore service.

About one in five of the affected businesses remain closed. State and local officials and Columbia Gas have scheduled a forum for affected businesses on Tuesday at 6 pm at Lawrence High School for impacted businesses. The forum will include information on filing claims, accessing capital scheduling upgrades to impacted equipment and facilities. While the forum is open to all businesses, the focus will be on small businesses.

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Top: The house on Chickering Road in Lawrence where 18-year-old Leonel Rondon was killed on Sept. 13. Rondon was sitting in the car parked in the driveway when a gas explosion destroyed the house and toppled the chimney onto the car. Photo by Dave Copeland/Patch.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).