PROVIDENCE – Power has been restored to most customers that were affected by the overnight rainstorm into early Tuesday morning that brought more than 60 mph winds to some parts of the state overnight.
At 1:45 p.m., Rhode Island Energy said 35,000 of the 45,000 customers that lost power are now back online.
This latest round of power outages roughly matches Rhode Island Energy customers who were in the dark two weeks ago during the “Blizzard of 26,” which dumped 3 feet of snow in parts of the state.
"Following last night’s severe weather, our crews will be working around the clock to repair damage and restore power as quickly and as safely as possible," said Kathy Castro, vice president of electric operations at RIE. "We understand that being without power is never easy, and we’ll continue working non-stop until every customer is restored.”
The company prepared for the storm by securing additional crews and personnel, Rhode Island energy said. This includes overhead and underground line workers for distribution and transmission restoration, tree-trimming crews, wires-down personnel, substation workers and back office employees.The company, however, did not give an exact time when power would be 100% restored.
As of 2:01 p.m., 9,411 Rhode Island Energy customers were without power, according to the company’s power-outage map. The majority of those outages appeared west of Cranston.
Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport reported 61 mile-per-hour wind gusts at 1:28 a.m. Tuesday, the highest in the state. Providence saw 45 mile-per-hour winds, while Westerly recorded gusts of 38 miles per hour.
Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed across the U.S. Tuesday, one day after powerful storms swept across the eastern half of the country and upended air travel in a cross-section of cities. Travelers have been facing additional jams at airport security checkpoints as a partial government shutdown strains screener staffing.
Nearly 900 flights scheduled to fly into, out of or within the U.S. have been called off as of Tuesday morning, and nearly 1,800 were delayed, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.
T.F. Green had 12 flights that were scheduled to depart late Tuesday morning, while one flight was canceled. On the arrival side, eight flights were scheduled to land late while one other was canceled, according to the airport website.
Flight delays and cancellations piled up Monday at some of the nation’s largest airports, including those in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The storm system that dumped heavy snow across the Midwest raced toward the East Coast with high winds reaching gusts near 50 mph in parts of New York, the National Weather Service said.
(UPDATED throughout with latest figures on outages, comment. Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.)
