on 09-04-2009 01:42

By SANDY McGEE

WOONSOCKET — A massive power outage left several downtown businesses without electricity Thursday, causing employees of The Times to evacuate the building as smoke billowed from a manhole on the sidewalk.

As National Grid worked to correct the problem, Main Street became a virtual ghost town with the lack of customers at area shops and traffic diverted away from downtown.
Approximately 3,000 National Grid customers in Woonsocket and North Smithfield lost electrical power Wednesday evening shortly after 9 p.m.
“We had two transformers fail underground,” said Debbie Drew, spokesperson for National Grid. “As a result of that, a cable was severely damaged.”
National Grid employees worked throughout the night into Thursday to replace those two underground transformers and cable in the Main Street area. The work was expected to last throughout the day and into Friday.
“They (the cable) are very lengthy, running the length of several city blocks,” Drew said. “It can be tedious work. It can take quite a lot of time to find and fix the problem.”
National Grid was able to switch the majority of its 3,000 customers to another feed, returning power to most of those residences and businesses by Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning.
Thirteen National Grid customers, including The Times production facility, remained without electricity as of Thursday afternoon.
The power failure caused a one-day delay in the publication of Thursday’s edition of The Times.
The transformers’ failure also caused an underground electrical fire that was quickly brought under control Wednesday evening in the Main Street area.
“There was a fire in one of the underground vaults,” said Woonsocket Deputy Fire Chief Thomas F. Williams. “We responded to the area and provided standby service.”
No one was injured during the response.The cause of the power outage remains unknown at this time, according to National Grid.
“Unfortunately, equipment sometimes does fail, “ Drew said. “The company will perform an investigation. Any number of factors could have led to this.
“Our primary focus is to get service back to our customers. We have been working with the mayor on this and we do appreciate her help.
According to fire officials, National Grid has been recently upgrading service in the downtown area. National Grid employees were seen working on Main Street Wednesday.
“National Grid has been doing utility upgrades on Main Street for the past two months,” Williams said.
Roland Renaud, a city resident for 40 years, said he had never seen Main Street without electric power for so long.
“We also lost power on Third Avenue,” Renaud said. “It’s back on now.”
“We lost power in North Smithfield,” said Audrey Lambert. “The lights flickered and I said, ‘uh oh.’ I thought it was a fluke. Then, the lights went out for about an hour.”
“I woke up this morning and everything was off,” said Marc Daigneault, who lives on Main Street. “We have power on now (at about 10 a.m. Thursday).”
Jeffrey Polucha, economic development director for the city, walked door-to-door Thursday to all of Main Street’s businesses. Polucha spoke with local business owners to assess the amount of damage in the form of spoiled food, as well as the loss of customers caused by Main Street being closed to motor vehicles.
“I’m out visiting all of the businesses to see how they are coping this morning and to see what we can do to help,” Polucha said. “We are trying to keep the lines of
communication open and to assess how bad the businesses were affected.”
Main Street was expected to be closed to motor vehicle traffic throughout the day.
“The street being closed is definitely a problem for businesses,” Polucha said.
Some business owners said the outage caused a major disruption, while others called
the outage “a minor inconvenience.”
“It hasn’t affected me at all,” said stylist Susan Haynes at Attitude Salon on Main
Street. “I called all my clients and told them to park elsewhere. I haven’t had any
problems.”
While some of the businesses had insurance to cover the loss of food, the loss of
expected customers for the day cannot be replaced.
“Thursday is usually very busy,” said Alda Cooke, owner of the Main Street Café.
“I’ve had two customers all morning.”
Some businesses, including Vino’s Bar and Bistro and the Wellness Connection, closed
early due to the lack of customers.
Jason Dusablon, co-owner of Vino’s Bar and Bistro, said he lost about $1,500 worth
of food Wednesday. Electricity was lost to a fridge containing meat and prepared
foods.
Owners of the Liberty Market convenience store said they lost $2,700 worth of frozen
food, such as ice cream and frozen TV dinners. The store’s owner said he was also
concerned due to Main Street being closed at one of the busiest times of the month.
“The third day is one of the busiest,” said Jamil Sheikh, owner of Liberty Market.
“A lot of people come in today to cash checks. We are losing a lot of business today
because the street is closed. I understand it happens, but it happened on the wrong
day.”
According to National Grid, some businesses and residences only experienced partial
electricity loss.
“That happens sometimes when the portion of what is called a three-phase line is
damaged,” Drew said. “Three power lines are bundled together and only one is
damaged.”
Electricity should be restored to those 13 remaining customers by Friday, according
to National Grid.