To the editor:

I live on the “East Side” of Little Compton, which is comprised of all the homes on the East side of East Main Road. Living here is wonderful, and has never been an issue, until this past year. Starting in December 2015, those of us on the “East Side” began experiencing electrical power outages. One rainy day before Christmas, we lost power for 5 hours. A branch fell on the wires somewhere on Colebrook Road. A few weeks later, a car hit a pole, and we lost power yet again. Another incident involved a transformer blowing out on Colebrook Road.

The infamous February 5 snowstorm left the “East Side” of town without power for over 24 hours, but not the West side of Little Compton, which is fed via Main Road. They never lost power.

We thought we were all set and in the clear, until our first severe thunderstorm in July. Again, another 5 hours of no power as lightning hit a pole somewhere. We all know that lightning is an Act of God, and not something that National Grid is responsible for. However, last night some thunderstorms came through in the evening, and the first distant lightning bolt, which was far north in Tiverton somewhere, and not locally close by, zapped our power yet again. This time for 3 hours. Upon looking at the National Grid outage map, we were even more surprised to find that, throughout the entire state, Little Compton’s “East Side” had the greatest amount of customers in the dark. 2,470!

That number seems etched in my mind, you see, for whenever we have an outage, upon checking the National Grid outage map, we find our “East Side” number listed.

Last night, when I called the police dispatcher about the outage, she said that something related to the storm had happened in Tiverton, and that was the cause. The outage map did not indicate Tiverton residents without power. Just our “East Side” group.

Last week, on a calm and wind-less sunny day, we came home from the beach mid-afternoon, to find our house in the dark. A 4 hour outage this time; some wires on Long Highway had fallen onto the road. That part of Long Highway was closed to traffic for the afternoon, as the wonderful crews brought back the juice once again.

I have lived in Little Compton for 38 years, and remember when our electrical outages occurred only during snowstorms, or extremely severe thunderstorms or hurricanes. What perplexes us here on the “East Side” is why we seem to lose power almost 2 to 3 times a month, for some unusual reason?

I am not criticizing the crews. They are our amazing saviors, restoring us to the wonderful world of refrigeration, and light, and air conditioners, and water, in all kinds of adverse and life-threatening weather conditions. What I am wondering, though, is if National Grid will be conducting a serious, thorough, and intensive analysis and investigation of the quality of the feeders and lines servicing the “East Side” of Little Compton, via Colebrook Road, next week, if not sooner, and will they plan to make improvements where needed to bring us up to the quality of service offered everyone else in Rhode Island?

This is not Honduras or Guatemala— and yet, losing power for 3, 4 or 5 hour periods three times a month, is becoming far too familiar for those of us living on the “East Side” of Little Compton.

Claire Johnson

Little Compton