Equipment Failure Knocks Out Power to North County
 Motorists try to maneuver the intersection on Main Street on Wednesday after a power loss knocked out the traffic lights. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — For the third day in a row, North County has had to deal with bad weather or no power.
What appeared to a be rolling brownout cut electrical power to sections of Williamstown, Adams and North Adams, as well as Stamford and isolated sections of southern Vermont, for about an hour on Wednesday afternoon.
National Grid spokesman Jake Navarro said about 6,100 customers were affected by the brownout, which occurred shortly after 4 p.m.
"It does look like many of the customers affected today were also affected by yesterday's outage, but it was a separate piece of equipment that caused the issue," he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, power was lost to more than 18,000 customers for about 3 1/2 hours, after a transformer fire at the substation on Zylonite Station Road in Adams. It took three tries before the utility could sustain power throughout the region.
The power came back a lot quicker on Wednesday. Navarro said a separate equipment failure required switching over to a new circuit.
"Everyone is back up and running as of 4:56," he said.
Mayor Richard Alcombright posted on his Facebook page that he and other local municipal leaders would be meeting with National Grid management to discuss the recent equipment failures.
"I think it is VERY premature to be pointing fingers at Grid or government," he wrote. "I am certain that there are reasons and remedies."
Residents reported they were able to use some electrical devices but not others. At iBerkshires' office on Main Street, the computers and air conditioning shut off but some lights stayed on for about 20 minutes before power was completely lost.
Access to electricity also seemed to be by street, with some neighborhoods untouched while nearby blocks were out.
Power was restored as the National Weather Service issued another severe thunderstorm warning. A line of storms was advancing on Southern Vermont and the north edge of North Berkshire.
Tuesday night's brief but intensive storm toppled a number of trees around the area, including a large one that came to rest on a house on Cole Avenue in Williamstown. A storm on Monday afternoon created what may have been a microburst that tore a path through a wooded back yard in North Adams.
Wednesday's thunderstorm watch is in effect until 10 p.m. The concert scheduled at Windsor Lake has been canceled.
Tags: bad weather, power outages,
