Restoration Report | October 2012 SuperstormSuperStorm |Sandy Restoration | Restoration Report Report Restoration Report | October 2012 Table of Contents Avengers Assemble..................................6 The Dark Night....................................... 10 Iron Men.................................................. 14 ‘Amazing’ Communications.....................16 SuperstormSuperStorm |Sandy Restoration | Restoration Report Report It was on Monday, October 22, a full week before the first winds were felt, when the first troubling emails began circulating at Unitil about a gathering storm in the Caribbean. Most far-flung tropical systems don’t amount to much in New England, but each instance is monitored closely and regarded as a possible threat to the day-to-day order and comfort of Unitil’s customers. On this particular Monday, what caught the eye of Unitil’s weather watchers was one bizarre model solution to the 10-day forecast. The model suggested that there was the potential for an as-yet unformed tropical cyclone to manifest, track northward, and then merge with an oncoming cold front thousands of miles away. At the time, some forecasters shrugged the model off as too extreme. Such a storm would be devastating to the northeast, they said. So devastating, it likely would never occur. Unitil took notice. As the week pressed on, the forecasted odds for a repeat of the 1991 “Perfect Storm,” continued to increase. By Wednesday, the super storm that had a five percent chance of survival had grown to about a 60 percent likelihood. Its timing, a year to the day of the “Snowtober” nor’easter that had dumped a foot of snow on the region, an ill omen. Unitil had been ready for that storm, restoring power to 76,000 of its customers within 72 hours. But, what were the odds of a major storm striking during the same week in October two years in row? Unitil refused to gamble when so much was at stake. SuperstormSuperStorm |Sandy Restoration | Restoration Report Report Unitil SuperStorm AVENGERS ASSEMBLE On Wednesday, October 24, Unitil officially engaged its industry-leading emergency response machine with the first of what would be a A satellite image of Hurricane Sandy, pictured at 00:15 UTC, churns off the east coast of the U.S. series of meetings to Photo: NASA via Getty Images monitor the storm and discuss preparations. Team managers from operations, customer service and communications were briefed on an array of storm models and accompanying variables, and each were assigned key responsibilities across coverage areas in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. All began the process of reaching out to secure additional personnel should the storm hit. Customer safety was the highest priority. When you do something often enough, it gets more streamlined and fluid, and the coming of this so-called SuperStorm was the fifth major weather event to strike the region in as many years. Like clockwork, crews from as far away as Tennessee, Michigan and Canada — old friends from previous storms — were booked for a return visit. Unitil issued a Public Service Announcement (PSA) 6 SuperstormSuperStorm |Sandy Restoration | Restoration Report Report highlighting the impending threat and laying out the steps The company worked non-stop throughout the weekend being taken to prepare for, and stay safe during and after, making preparations for Hurricane Sandy. Unitil opened the storm. its system and all regional emergency operations centers at 8 a.m. on Monday, October 29, almost exactly a week This information and much more, including safety tips and after the first emails about the storm circulated, and just helpful information provided by the American Red Cross, before the severe weather from the SuperStorm was were prominently displayed on the Unitil website, tweeted poised to hit. out over Twitter, and emailed to municipalities, elected officials, regulators and company staff. We will be praying for your crews and Vacation plans for Unitil employees were suspended, employees throughout the storm. And for everyone else! Please be safe. Halloween plans with young family members dashed. There was work to be done as the call center braced for the surge of initial calls and polished its emergency plan to respond quickly to inquiries. Fast forward to Saturday, October 27. Hurricane Sandy took several lives in the Caribbean and left devastation in the Bahamas. The “SuperStorm” scenario was now a near certainty. The only question remaining was where the massive storm would ultimately make landfall. For Unitil, the exact location — either central or southern New Jersey — was irrelevant. The sheer size of the storm assured that New England, the mid-Atlantic, and even the “As the storm nears, we will provide additional information Great Lakes would be impacted by strong winds, storm regarding the opening of our emergency operations surges, and rain. There was even snow predicted in some centers,” Unitil Media Relations Manager Alec O’Meara spots. Weather experts kepy saying storms like this rarely said in the company’s first PSA. “We will be in close happen, though they now seem to be happening annually. contact with emergency responders and public By Saturday, however, Unitil’s crack logistics team had officials regarding our preparations and efforts assembled an army 1,000 strong to respond to this storm. regarding restoration.” 8 SuperstormSuperStorm |Sandy Restoration | Restoration Report Report The DARK NIGHT With winds up to 90 mph and a record 13-foot storm surge, SuperStorm Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey, around 8 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, October 29. Strong winds and rain preceded Sandy all the way up to Maine as Unitil executed on its plan. Crews worked to address early outages for as long as it remained safe to do so. A Unitil PSA warned that due to the severity of the forecast “we anticipate the impact to the electrical system in the region could be severe and may result in a multiple- day restoration. Unitil will restore power as long as conditions allow for safe restoration; bucket trucks cannot operate safely in winds in excess of 35 mph.” And exceed 35 mph they did. From late afternoon through the wee hours of the Thank you @Unitil crews for the power morning, the entirety of northeastern America was restoration in the middle of the storm! You battered by high winds and heavy rain. 60 million are awesome! Be safe! Americans and hundreds of miles of coastline were battered. With a core low pressure of 940 millibars, Sandy was the most intense storm ever to make landfall north of Cape Hatteras. Had the SuperStorm been a country, its square miles would have made it the 20th largest country in the world, roughly twice the size of Texas. Waves exceeding 30 feet were measured in New York’s harbors. @Unitil We are back on line! Thanks for your tireless work to get everybody 10 back up and running! SuperstormSuperStorm |Sandy Restoration | Restoration Report Report Many thanks to @Unitil for the updated electronic outage map! I can keep track of my family’s outage situations from overseas in #Spain :) The SuperStorm’s impact to the country was devastating. However, because crews chased the outages whenever it was According to CNN, 8.5 million people in 15 states lost power safe to do so, Unitil’s peak numbers were roughly half the total due to the storm. The shores of New Jersey were destroyed impact. At peak — estimated at approximately 11 p.m. Monday almost beyond recognition by 90-mile-per-hour winds evening — approximately 36,000 Unitil customers were and flooding. Locally, winds well in excess of 50 mph were without power, two-thirds of which were on the New Hampshire measured, snarling lines and knocking out power. Seacoast where the winds were strongest. Downtown Concord was in the dark, and state offices on Hazen Drive were knocked During the storm, approximately 69,000 Unitil out. North Central Massachusetts, the least impacted of customer outages were reported across its Unitil’s territories, still had more than 5,000 people 104,000 customer base. without power. 12 SuperstormSuperStorm |Sandy Restoration | Restoration Report Report @Unitil YAY! Power is back!! You are my new BFF’s! Thanks to the crews out there! The IRON MEN As the winds died down and wires down issues were resolved, Unitil’s team got an overnight jump on the restoration effort. As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, October 30, approximately 22,700 customers were without power spread across all service territories, a considerable improvement over the prior night. Of those, approximately 15,800 customers were without power in the NH Seacoast region, 5,200 were without power in the New Hampshire Capital region and 1,700 were down in North-Central Massachusetts. Approximately 93 percent of Unitil’s How’d that overnight improvement happen? Unitil crews, customers had power less than 18 hours in coordination with municipal emergency responders, from the peak. worked diligently overnight on public safety issues and restored power where possible. Fresh crews rolled into Over 99 percent of Unitil’s Massachusetts customers had the field early Tuesday morning to continue damage power back on well within the first24 hours. assessment and restoration. The crews provided specialized work and included traditional bucket trucks, By nightfall Wednesday, only a handful of customers in the line, tree, pole-setting, damage assessment and wires hard-hit Seacoast regions remained. In less than 48 hours, down teams. Unitil had bounced back from the East Coast’s so-called Storm of the Century, leading the region in restoration The speed with which extended work crews from all over and allowing Unitil crews to assist utilities in other the country restored power was breathtaking. New England regions. 14 SuperstormSuperStorm |Sandy Restoration | Restoration Report Report @Unitil @PaulaWilton61 Ditto here. Thank you for Twitter feed and for all of your hard work.