PROVIDNECE – Thousands of Rhode Islanders were still in the dark Friday as high winds swept across the state.
Rhode Island Energy spokesperson Caroline Pretyman said power had been restored to 9,500 customers as of 1:30 p.m., with 3,500 still without service.
Wind gusts as high as 39 miles per hour were recorded in Providence. East Providence had the highest number of outages with 486 at 2:17 p.m., according to the utilities power outage map.
There are 50 internal line crews and 49 external contractor line crews working in both the coastal and capitol regions of the state, Preytman said, plus an additional 53 tree crews supporting the storm response effort.
“The winds are forecasted to continue to gust into the early evening, so we are keeping on extra crews throughout the day until all customers are restored,” Pretyman said.
The National Weather Service in Norton has issued a wind advisory for Rhode Island, with sustained winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour and wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour. The advisory is in effect until 7 p.m. Friday.
(UPDATE adds comment from Rhode Island Energy spokesperson Caroline Pretyman, adds the number of customers with restored power and updates the number still without power.)