Gas Leak In Southold On Route 48: All 'Safe' Now: National Grid

SOUTHOLD, NY — In an ironic twist, just one day before an extensive National Grid drill scheduled for town beach in Southold to simulate a "large gas leak" — there was real-life gas leak just feet away on Wednesday afternoon.

The gas leak, which took place at the intersection of County 48 and Richmond Road, just west of town beach, was under control, with conditions "safe," just after noon, according to a National Grid worker, Rich, who was onsite and declined to give his last name.

According to Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley, a contractor working on the road construction project struck a gas main with a backhoe tractor while digging.

Wendy Ladd, media representative for National Grid, said only 2 customers were affected. The area was "made safe" at 12:06 p.m., and crews will be out working until 2 customers ae back up and running.

"It’s the identical scenario for our planned drill with National Grid at town beach," Flatley said.

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell noted the irony in the gas leak happening just one day before the drill, which is slated to take place Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on town beach and include National Grid employees, Southold Town Police, emergency management officials, and local fire departments — the real-life incident illustrated the need for the drill, he noted.

"We have a scheduled drill tomorrow to evaluate our coordinated emergency response to a hypothetical gas leak. It happens to be right near where we had an actual gas leak today," he said. "A gas leak is never funny but, man, this comes close," Russell said.

The goal, said Lloyd Reisenberg of the Southold emergency management office, at a prior town board meeting, is to simulate "a rather large gas leak to see how National Grid responds. It will be quite intense; they'll act as if it was live," he said.

National Grid, he said, executes drills a number of times a year; a real gas leak in Cutchogue a number of years ago prompted the North Fork drill.

Southold Town Councilman Bob Ghosio said the drill will be an important exercise and noted that the leak in Cutchogue a few years ago ended up shutting down whole parts of town for more than a week in the middle of winter.

"This is a big drill," Reisenberg said. "It's not going to be a little event."

Reisenberg said he couldn't go into details about the drill because the aim is that those participating not know what's going to happen.

National Grid crews, he said, will have to come from west of Southold Town and fix the leak quickly.

Something National Grid employees got to practice in real-time Wednesday after the real leak on Route 48.