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| Charlestown Beach Road weathered the storm in style. |
As of today, Town Hall is open and all services are available. The following helpful information is from the town web site:
Water is still available at Town Hall and the Police Station from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM.
Showers are available at the Chariho High School, on Switch Road in Richmond, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Please bring your own towel.
Temporary passes will be available at the Town Hall for yard waste disposal at the Charlestown Residential Collection Center, from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, through Saturday September 3rd.
Red Cross will be at the Charlestown Police Station from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM with bottled water, heated meals and snacks.
Please contact the Charlestown Police Department information line, 213-6920, if you have any storm-related questions. Charlestown residents will continue to be notified by the emergency notification system known as ONE CALL NOW. Residents can still register on the ONE CALL NOW system here.
Other info:
Visit National Grid's Outage Central website, which
updates every 15 minutes. Restoration times are expected to be
posted as the number of outages declines. As Tom pointed out, don't assume National Grid necessarily knows you're without power if you haven't reported it yourself. Call 1-800-465-1212 to report an outage.
For some strange reason, Verizon picked the middle of a power outage to start calling folks in the area offering to give price quotes to switch to Fios. What they probably won't tell you is that in a power outage of more than a few hours, with Fios you'll lose phone service as well, since unlike traditional landlines, which are powered by electricity traveling along the phone lines, Fios draws power from your home circuitry. The system includes an uninterruptible power supply that they claim will power your phone for 8 hours, but I've heard reports of it cutting out after as little as 3 hours. My advice, for what it's worth: If you still have old-fashioned landline service, keep it.
Sadly, all the coastal ponds are closed to shellfishing until September 6. DEM maintains a 24-hour shellfishing hotline, 222-2900, with recorded updated information on shellfish closure areas.
Storm-related news stories from outside the Westerly Sun's paywall:
Power to be out for days (August 30, 2011)
Reports from around the region (August 28, 2011)
Winds punish coast as outages spread (August 28, 2011)
Charlestown evacuation an orderly exit (August 27, 2011)
I had Fios in the last place I lived and I miss 15 Mb Internet access terribly... That said, as Linda mentions you rely on a lead-acid (lawn mower) battery for the phone to work during an outage.
ReplyDeleteI guess you could hook up a car battery in a pinch!
And you have the same issue with Cox cable phone, I think.
Beth Richardson comments
ReplyDeleteTraditional phone lines, and cable lines (like Cox) are mounted on the same telephone pones that carry the electric lines, except in more modern developments where the power and phone lines are buried in conduits. So, it happens fairly often that the electricity make go out (from a downed electric line or substation failure) but the phone lines are intact and working. If the electric power is out but the phone lines are intact your answering machine will not work(it is powered by electricity) nor will your cordless house phones (also powered by electricity). In this situation if you have a phone that is corded, like those princess-style phones (available at for cheap at Benny's) it will work.