More than 100,000 people are without power in Nova Scotia. Chris McKinnon from Eversource talks preparations made for the storm and what resources are used to restore power.
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00:00 Even in Nova Scotia, more than 100,000 people without power in Nova Scotia this morning.
00:05 And in Massachusetts, Eversource is the power company for more than 1.2 million customers.
00:11 For the latest on outages there, we are now joined by spokesman Chris McKinnon,
00:16 who joins us from Boston. And we were speaking a little bit ahead of this
00:19 interview, and you just have so much great information, so we're looking forward to
00:22 chatting. Yeah, good morning, Chris. Good morning. Thanks so much for having us. You know,
00:26 we've been watching your forecast, multiple forecasts, and getting ready for the storm,
00:29 and we're really happy to see that the effects aren't as bad as they could have been. So we
00:33 appreciate the hard work you're putting in on your end as well. We appreciate the compliment.
00:37 We didn't tell him to say that. Thank you, Chris.
00:39 That was not asked in advance. So, Chris, we appreciate it. But you know what? It's just
00:44 good to hear that things are going better than expected on your end. But we were talking about
00:49 this behind the scenes. You guys were really ready ahead of the game here. Yeah, whenever
00:55 we have severe weather coming our way, like I mentioned, we're watching forecasts days in
00:59 advance. And with this storm in particular, we had the added positive aspect of it where it wasn't
01:06 affecting our southern states and our friends down south. So we were able to get those mutual aid
01:12 resources up into the area, have them secure so that they were ready to go, and we could really
01:17 throw a lot of resources at any restoration that was necessary. And so obviously, we've seen the
01:21 impacts, particularly early this morning. We're still seeing the wind gusts that Bill just
01:26 mentioned out there on the outer Cape. We're still expecting those for the next several hours here.
01:32 And so we do have a lot of resources available to us. And what we're really seeing is that the
01:37 impacts are really focused in right now on Cape Cod. So we're able to put as many of our resources
01:43 out onto the Cape to start working on those restoration numbers. And we've been seeing them
01:46 go up a little bit this morning, and now they're starting to come back down a little bit, which
01:50 means our crews are able to make some good progress here. Yeah, the crews are working quickly. But for
01:55 folks who may be without power, maybe watching us on a live stream on a cell phone that was
01:59 pre-charged overnight, any advice to folks who are without power right now? Absolutely. You know,
02:04 as we particularly move into the kind of cleanup phase, once the storm starts moving out,
02:09 you know, patience. We always ask our customers to be patient with us. We do have crews out there,
02:14 a significant number of them, like I mentioned, in the hundreds. And our customers up here in
02:19 Massachusetts are fantastic. They understand that, you know, we can't control what Mother
02:23 Nature is throwing at us. All we can do is prepare to the best of our abilities. So, you know, there
02:27 have been some power outages this morning. New Englanders, they aren't strangers to this type
02:32 of weather or to those power outages, you know, when Mother Nature does do this. But we put a lot
02:36 of work into the preparations ahead of time. So, you know, everything from the year-round
02:41 processes that we go through, like installing stronger utility poles, thicker cables for the
02:46 power lines, and putting in automatic technology so that we can reduce the frequency and the number
02:52 of customers that are impacted by power outages. So we ask them to be patient. But then, you know,
02:57 as we move into the cleanup phase, really safety should always be first and foremost. Bill mentioned
03:01 it. I know I had a chance to talk to him a couple of days ago. And we were talking about giving the
03:06 crews enough space out there to do their work. And then, of course, if you do see any downed
03:10 power lines in your neighborhood, just please steer clear, report them to 911.
03:13 So important. Chris McKinnon, spokesperson for Eversource. Thank you so much for the
03:17 great information this morning and stay safe out there. I'll be right back. Stay with us.