Gas Restored to 95 Percent of Newport Customers

NEWPORT, R.I. -- One week after a low-pressure issue forced National Grid to cut gas service to thousands of Newport and Middletown residents, restoration efforts are nearly complete. As of 8 p.m. Sunday, the company said that service had been restored to 95 percent of customers.

Anyone still without gas service is once again urged not to attempt to relight it themselves. National Grid technicians are still available and will continue to go door to door to ensure no one is overlooked.

We have restored gas service to 95% of impacted customers in Newport. We urge any remaining customers to please leave an exterior light on to signal that our technicians are welcome to knock on your door during late evening hours.
— National Grid US (@nationalgridus) January 28, 2019

In order to restore service, at least one adult 18 years old or older must be present to give access to the home. If no adult is present, National Grid technicians will not enter the property. In addition, all technicians will be carrying an official company ID card. To ensure safety, customers are encouraged to check the ID before allowing access to their home. The relighting process generally takes about 45 minutes.

As a reminder, stickers showing that gas service has been restored should not be removed at this time, as they help workers tell which homes still need to be addressed.

For those seasonal residents who are unable to have their service restored right away, National Grid said it will be ready and available to assist whenever is convenient for them.

"We're a local company and we're not going anywhere," said Terry Soblewski, chief customer officer at Rhode Island National Grid.

Anyone who has not yet done so is encouraged to update their contact information online in case the company needs to get in touch with them.

For assistance in filing a claim for reimbursement of lodging or food costs incurred during the outage, customers can visit the customer service center at Gurney's Resort on Goat Island. Soblewski added on Sunday that National Grid will work with customers to assist with filing claims for insurance coverage if needed.

"All that said, we recognize that the claims process is limited by what we can do as a utility, and we want to do more," Soblewski said. "We're working closely with the governor and the commerce department, and we'll hopefully have some more news for you in the next day or two about the specific support we'll have for small businesses impacted by the event."

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