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Local Selectman: National Grid Restoration Priority Lists "Inaccurate"

EAST BROOKFIELD (CBS) - Five days after a snowstorm knocked out power to thousands, 60 percent of the town of East Brookfield was still in the dark on Thursday.

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National Grid has promised 10 crews will stay in East Brookfield until everybody has electricity back, but town officials said power would have been back a lot sooner if the utility had better planned the restorations.

Selectman Larry Gordon said officials told National Grid after Tropical Storm Irene that their priority lists were way out of date.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Lana Jones reports.

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"The information National Grid had on where the critical areas were here in town was very obsolete and, in fact inaccurate," said Gordon.

For example, the company had a line running to a hospital that doesn't exist.

Gordon said they thought they had it straightened out, but then this time, crews that should have started by fixing the water supply were sent elsewhere.

"The road that's about a quarter of a mile long leading down to the water supply was completely blocked with trees, and all these trees were on power lines, so our highway department could not remove them. We had to depend on National Grid tree crews to get down there and remove them. Well, they didn't come," said Gordon.

Luckily, the propane backup lasted and nobody lost water.

Gordon is asking for annual storm reviews with National Grid so they don't go through that again.

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