Sarno said he has directed the city attorney to ask the state attorney general to review WMECO's emergency response procedures for catastrophic power outages.
Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno throws his hands in the air in frustration as he talks to the press about his displeasure at WMECO's efforts to restore power to large parts of the city. Sarno said the amount of people still without power going on four days is unacceptable.SPRINGFIELD - A visibly frustrated Domenic J. Sarno on Tuesday blasted Western Massachusetts Electric Co. for what he called a lackluster effort to restore electricity in the region’s largest city and for projections that could leave several thousands of city residents without electricity or heat for a week or more.
Sarno, at a press briefing in City Hall, voiced frustration and anger at the restoration effort since Saturday night, and with the latest WMECO projections that power will not be fully restored in the city until Friday or Saturday.
“I’m very frustrated with their performance. This is unacceptable,” Sarno said. “I’m told that crews are on the way, but where are they?”
Sarno said that in his travels around the city since Saturday to assess the damage, he has not seen any WMECO trucks. City hall staff and department heads have reported to him the same observation, he said.
“I’ve been told more trucks on their way,” he said. “We’re going into day four of people with no electricity and no heat in the most populated city in Western Massachusetts.”
Fifty-two percent of the city remains without power. The percentage is far lower than other communities, some of which remain above 80 percent.
But Springfield, by virtue of being the largest community, has the most number of people affected.
Sarno said he has directed City Solicitor Edward Pikula to ask state Attorney General Martha Coakley to review of WMECO’s emergency response procedures when responding to catastrophic power outages.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 37,000 households and businesses, an estimated 75,000 people, remain powerless, he said. The city’s emergency shelter reached capacity Monday night, and Sarno said he expects it to reach capacity again.
The city has been forced to send some people to a regional shelter in Chicopee.
“I know its a difficult storm, but where is the commitment to the city of Springfield,” he said. “I’m demanding more of a focus on the city of Springfield.”
Sarno said he was told WMECO sent 4 trucks to the city initially and it has since been bumped up to six.
The number is inadequate and unacceptable, he said.
Also unacceptable is the projection that has full power restored in Springfield by Friday or Saturday.
I see the faces of the people in the shelter, I see the faces of people in the city,” he said. “Seven or eight days in these cold winter months without heat or electricity is unacceptable.”
One of those faces is his own in the mirror.
Sarno said his power has been out since Saturday, and like many people in the city, has limited access to hot-water showers.
Usually impeccably dressed, the mayor addressed the media while wearing blue jeans, a warm-up jacket and a Basketball Hall of Fame ballcap pulled down over his hair. He also had signs of a three-day beard.
“I’m patient, I can work with people but for two days I’ve been hearing trucks are on the way,” he said. “This is unacceptable.”
The response to this storm has been far inferior to the utility’s response to other major outages, including most recently the June 1 tornado, Sarno said.
Sandra Ahearn, spokeswoman for WMECO, said the company has been trying its best to restore power but the damage has been extensive and wide-spread.
“The level of damage has been akin to the June 1 tornado all over the region,” she said. “It’s that pervasive.”
The company is working to restore power in 44 separate communities, she said.
“We have been balancing our responsibilities to serve our customers and make repairs as expeditiously and as safely as we can,” she said.
In the last two days, WMECO has restored power to 60,000 customers, she said, noting that fully half of them were in Springfield.
To restore power, crews have to work on main lines first and then the secondary lines, she said. “A lot of people in the neighborhoods may not necessarily see a truck on their street but that doesn’t mean the work is not being done.”
The company has four times the number of work crews it usually has out making
repairs. In the next day or so, that number is likely to jump to seven times, as crews arrive from as far away as Louisiana and Missouri.
Easthampton Mayor Michael Tautznik said Easthampton, like Springfield, has significant sections without electricity. The town suffered a 100-percent outage from Saturday night until some sections were restored Monday evening.
Tautznik said WMECO crews have been in town and are working. He said he was not prepared to say if he thought they were working quickly enough.
Told of Sarno’s charges, Tautznik said it is not his inclination to criticize WMECO until after all the repairs are made and the scope of the damage and the causes are better known.
In Ludlow, Selectmen Chairman Aaron Saunders shared Sarno’s frustrations about the length of time needed for full power restoration.
“Of course we would all like to be first to have our power restored,” he said.
He said rather than WMECO paying for many more crews and passing the charge on to the customer, a better solution might be to start burying more power lines to prevent an outage on such a scale.