Officials Question National Grid Storm Response

FOXBOROUGH, MA - It might not have been the 2011 storms where power was gone for days, but Foxborough town officials were hoping for a little better service during last weekend’s storm.

“I think what happened years ago and the promises made, (National Grid) fell short,” Selectman Jim DeVellis said at this week’s selectmen meeting.

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According to Town Manager Bill Keegan, about 4,800 homes lost power during the storm that saw heavy snow bring down wires and tree branches. The powerless period was about 30 hours with electricity restored to some homes in a matter of hours and up to 28 hours for others.

Keegan said National Grid got caught with fewer crews than needed, eventually calling in crews as far north at Quebec.

“National Grid got caught short with their availability of crews because the original storm had this far east and north where it landed. They did not anticipate that amount of tree and wire damage,” Keegan said.

Unlike DeVellis, Keegan said in his experience, 30 hours is not a bad response, but it could have been better, noting that some outages could have been resolved faster if they had the manpower.

On the local front, Keegan praised the efforts of public works employees.

“Public Works did a terrific job of getting the roads clear and open at fast as possible. If was difficult to remove that snow but they did the best job under the circumstances,” he said.