Hurricane Sandy Passes Through Woonsocket With Little Damage Done

Woonsocket weathered Hurricane Sandy with minimal damage thanks to its inland geography - suffering power outages for about a day, with only three downed trees. 

By mid-morning, National Grid had restored power to more than 74,000 homes and businesses, more than 60 percent of the approximately 122,000 customers across the state who were in the dark after the storm, according to a release from the utility.

Woonsocket is among the communities restored to service. According to Fire Chief Gary Lataille, the city's emergency management director, by 11 a.m., National Grid had reported there were only five customers in the city without power.

By 12:45 p.m., there were 20 customers in the city without power due to downed lines and fallen branches, according to David Graves, spokesman for National Grid. He said all customers should have power back by Friday. Immediately after the storm, about 3,400 customers were without power, and that had been narrowed to only about 500 by Tuesday.

If anyone is without power, Graves said, and they haven't already done so, they should call the utility at 1-800-465-1212.

"During the entire event, we had zero calls for pumpouts," for flooding, Lataille said. There were only four calls for wires down, and only three trees down in the city: on Fountain Street, St. Marcel Street and Ballou Street. All of the trees have been cleared, he said.

There was no damage to public property from the storm, Lataille said, and only one report of private property damage, part of a roof damaged on Manville Road, Lataille said.  

As Lataille predicted, the Blackstone River didn't cross the four-foot mark during the storm.

Lataille asked anyone who has property damage from the storm to call his office at 401-597-6660 to report it, so he can give Rhode Island Emergency Management officials a full report when they visit Friday during a state-wide tour of the impact from Hurricane Sandy. Federal officials are likely to attend as well, Lataille said.

The information they gather from their inspection and Lataille's report will be part of a state-wide assessment of the damage from Hurricane Sandy, he said, though Woonsocket's contribution to the damage tally will be light — good news Lataille attributes to the city's inland locale.

Being further away from the ocean also helped out last year during Hurricane Irene, Lataille said, but Hurricane Sandy had a much smaller impact than Irene.