Politics & Government

Poor Communication from NStar During Tropical Storm Irene Biggest Complaint from Canton

Canton town officials voiced their opinions during a recent meeting.

After wreaked havoc in Canton, town officials voiced their complaints regarding during and after the storm.

At last week's Board of Selectmen meeting, Police Chief Ken Berkowitz, Fire Chief Charles Doody and DPW Director Mike Trotta all gave the board an overview of operations and during and after the storm.

The town "suffered a big loss during Irene," Berkowitz said. Close to 2,000 homes had no electricity due to wires and trees getting torn down, he noted.

Find out what's happening in Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

NStar did not restore power to the final group of impacted Canton customers until Friday, September 2, six days after the storm.

"The town's response was excellent," the police chief said. However, NStar "in my opinion, they were overwhelmed."

Find out what's happening in Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"One big complaint was the lack of communication" and the length of time it took "to stabilize the situation," Berkowitz said.

Despite the being prepared and on scene to cut down damaged trees and unblock roadways, their efforts were stalled by NStar, he said. Not knowing if downed wires were live or not due to NStar's delayed response kept the town in limbo.

Berkowitz called the situation "frustrating," noting that only two NStar workers with voltage meters were available for the entire town.

Board of Selectmen Chairman John Connolly said the lack of communication with the power company during Irene was "extremely frustrating."

"How can we stop this from happening next time? It cannot happen again," Connolly said.

Trotta suggested that NStar train a Canton Fire Department member to use the meters to determine whether a wire is live or not. This would decrease repair and recovery time, he said.

Doody added that internally, the town's emergency committee "worked great."

The emergency response team received 93 calls in 24 hours, he said. Nine of those calls were for trees into homes, Doody said.

However, the "communication with NStar was inadequate," he noted. "We could've been more efficient."

Another issue was NStar not knowing what the town's priority areas were, including the emergency shelter, which would have been located at Canton High School. That too did not have power, he noted.

Currently, the town is determining how much each department spent on the storm, according to Connolly.

The Board of Selectmen is meeting again tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Town Hall.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here