Utility companies are working to restore power to more than 160,000 customers. But the process is not simple.Customers without power should not expect their power to necessarily be restored as soon as the wind from Hurricane Sandy has subsided.
Once weather conditions are safe enough for work to begin, utility workers have a number of things they have to deal with before they can even begin repairing the down lines.
Safety concerns from live wires, the removal of debris from fallen trees or branches and the assessment of damage all precede the actual restoration process, says Liberty Utilities Spokesperson Maureen Kirk.
“And the earliest attention at that point is your looking at where are the hospitals, where are the critical care centers, where are the public safety facilities. We do prioritize those because we want to minimize the amount of time they have to stay on standby generation.”
Kirk says, then the lines that are fixed first are chosen with care and follow a pattern of efficiency from the outside in.
