'Community Power' Kept This Neighborhood Going

Power outages lingered in the area of Johnston near the Smithfield line on Aug. 31, three days after , snapping trees and felling power lines.

Utility company National Grid reported on its website that about 3,900 customers remained without power as of 9 a.m., a slight increase from yesterday's .

During an Aug. 30 interview on 630WPRO, National Grid spokesman David Graves said the number of outages typically increases as crews shut off power to affected homes so that repairs can be made.

because of the continuing outages, and because of concerns over the safety of transporting students.

Despite power being returned to most homes in the neighborhood near Dean Ave. as of 9 p.m. on Aug. 29, lots of clean-up work remained.

One thing that stayed strong throughout the storm was the sense of community in this small neighborhood, according to two residents interviewed on Aug. 30.

Alfred Avenue resident Mark Norberg said he felt this hurricane offered some positives out of the potential negatives.

“There wasn’t any power, so it gave me time to work on the house, spend time with my daughter, and be a little inventive," Norberg recalled on the afternoon of Aug. 30. "Kids say, ‘What can I do? I can’t watch TV.’ Well, what did people do before there was TV?”

The answer, according to Norberg: Read, spend time together, play games and go outside — after the storm, of course.

Norberg also spoke about how neighbors helped each other after the storm had passed.

“On the power side, this was very inconvenient, but as neighbors we came together. One borrowed a generator, and I and another house plugged in," Norberg recalled. "We shared what we had — one neighbor found a coffee shop [and said] ‘I’ll go get you a coffee,' then later found a Chinese restaurant and he went and got take-out."

Jim Poirier, of Harris Ave., said he disagreed with the hurricane's reported severity; he said it was overhyped.

“I’ve been through a few hurricanes before, and this was not a hurricane," Poirier explained. "Really, it was interesting. I didn’t mind the power being out. The calm, the quiet for a while — it wasn’t terrible.”

Poirier reported no damage to his property from falling trees — though a neighbor was not so lucky.

"My neighbor had a tree fall right on his car [and] a few neighbors lost limbs — tree limbs, that is,” added Poirier, jokingly.

His biggest relief when the power came back on?

“My daughter stopped complaining that there was no power!” Poirier replied.