After Irene, Foxborough Residents and Officials Voice Opinions

The Town of Foxborough held a public meeting at the Thursday to voice their extreme disappointment in National Grid’s response to the close to 100 percent power outage in town after

The meeting was intended to begin a dialogue between the community and National Grid. The company’s Massachusetts’s President Marcy Reed and other representatives were present to answer questions. 

Town Manager Kevin Paicos began the meeting by saying there were, “Two natural disasters that day." One was Irene and the other was the lack of response from National Grid. He noted that there was virtually no presence or visual work done by National Grid by Wednesday morning, three days after the storm. At which time, “We reached out to the media,” to get aid getting their voices heard. 

Paicos said, “Things began to improve on Wednesday afternoon."  He was very thankful that by that time, National Grid assigned a liaison to the town, Tom Coughlin, who Paicos called “excellent” and instrumental in the efforts to get power back to the community. 

Paicos noted the company ignored the town’s priorities of getting up electric powered well and sewer pumps, main feeder lines, and senior housing. One of the larger incendiary issues was that Gillete Stadium’s power was back on line before the rest of the town’s on Sunday night. 

"Many of the trees that took down power lines in the town were on privately owned land," Paicos said. He added that the town contacts homeowners with limbs overhanging lines and offers to trim them, but, “most homeowners say no."

At next week’s Board of Selectmen meeting, they are expected to vote on approving a letter of complaint to the state Department of Public Utilities regarding National Grid’s lack of response after the storm. 

“There are a number of communities doing the same,” said Paicos.

Reed took the microphone after to make a short speech and answer questions.  She thanked community members, “for all your patience and I apologize for the frustration."

She said their prep work for this was, “no different than any other”.  She said they began preparation by requesting an extra 1,100 truck crews to come to the area. “We only got 400,” she said.

Reed said that across the eastern seaboard, six million of their customers lost power in the storm.  In the end, the crews they did receive responded from Colorado, Wisconsin, Texas, Michigan and Canada.

“We never got the help we or you expected," she said.

Reed conceded that they did know they would only be 400 crews before the storm, but “It didn’t cross our minds to share that piece of data." She added, “Maybe we should have,” and the response could have been coordinated differently.   

She said their call center received 600,000 calls, “We’ve never had that many calls in our corporate history."  Reed said seven crews were sent out on Sunday night and did some work while the winds had died down, but they have a rule that no one can be in a bucket when winds reach 40 mph. 

The first thing they did was go after the larger infrastructure that sustains the union loop that most of Southeastern Massachusetts is on. Reed stated that the crews were not seen because the work being done was in the woods. 

She also wanted it known that there was, “no deal with Gillette." Reed noted Gillette was on a separate circuit they paid to have installed in the case of this happening. 

Reed stated that she was surprised the storm was downgraded to a tropical storm because it was the biggest they’ve handled. She added, “This was not just a National Grid problem, it was an industry problem."

Massachusetts Emergency Management Administration representative James Banyon said the Federal Emergency Management Administration has extended the length of time they will cover damage to the region for 11 days and will be covering up to 75 percent of the cost. He said their damages for Norfolk County are $2.2 million, but they are still receiving data.

Resident Bill Buckley asked why when they pay some of the highest electric rates in the country can they not have their power lines put under ground. Reed said the high rates are because of where the electricity is bought and if they put it under ground it would triple the cost.

Mechanic St. resident Greg McGrath said he did not see a lot of damage in the area and wondered why after the storm had ended at 7 p.m. did his power go out at 7:30 p.m. Reed responded by saying that there was still wind in other areas that affected the union loop Foxborough was on. 

Resident Steve Udden suggested that in the future the town and National Grid keep a record of inviduals who are most vulnerable and are put at a health risk by these outages.  He also suggests there be neighborhood leaders to aid in keeping the public informed during a crisis. 

Resident Martha Slattery said her issue was personal. She called National Grid two hours after losing power because her husband is hooked up to a breathing apparatus during sleep.  She said because he could not use the machine, “I watched my husband arrest”.  She expected a call back from National Grid with an ETA on when the power would be back on, but never received it.   

Reed apologized and said Slattery would normally be put higher on their priority list.  She offered to speak with Slattery after the meeting to get the scope of the issue.