PHOTO: What Caused Aquidneck Island's Power Outage
A utility pole that snapped in Portsmouth was to blame for most of the outages.
Photos
By now many of us have heard that a main transmission break on Aquidneck Island was to blame for the majority of outages in our area. Now we know where that was located.
A National Grid site manager confirmed today that a utility pole located at Montaup Country Club, 500 Anthony Road in Portsmouth, caused the major outage.
The manager said that the 95-foot utility pole snapped and fell onto another utility pole, causing wires to short and the outages that followed.
Power has been restored to a majority of Portsmouth residences. As of 2 p.m., Island Park and Common Fence Point remained without power.
A beached sailboat, which struck a waterfront house on Park Avenue Sunday, is causing a concern for emergency officials. The sailboat leans within inches of Park Avenue's electrical wires.
"It is a big concern," said Portsmouth Fire Capt. Mike Cranson.
Bryn Weymouth
11:01 pm on Monday, August 29, 2011
I would just like to thank National Grid and all the town workers who worked so hard to get everything up and running so quickly.
Rosemary Davidson
8:04 am on Tuesday, August 30, 2011
I too thank the National Grid workers and our town workers for their quick response. I called to report a tree across the road and they were here in 10 minutes!!
Susan Pearce
9:58 am on Tuesday, August 30, 2011
I appreciate all that National Grid has done to help Portsmouth and Aquidneck Islanders to get their power back. However, those of us on Birchwood Drive and Anson Road are beginning to wonder why we are still without power when people in Common Fence Point and all the roads surrounding us have power now. I have called the National Grid number and also sent a message using their online services. I am wondering why we have not seen anyone come by our street to at least check the lines and power boxes on the utility poles. I have not seen any downed trees or wires, tho several are hanging a bit low that go directly to a couple of houses. Some of us have generators and are some are sharing our short bursts of power with those who don't have them. Yet we still can't help but feel frustrated that this situation goes on. We feel like we are in the dark, and I am not talking about light now. The worst feeling is that of not knowing and not being able to communicate verbally our situation. Thank you Portsmouth Patch for having this avenue for me to get my message out. I hope we will have an answer soon to what is wrong here.
Sincerely,
Susan Pearce