In the News

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Thousands of residents all over western Massachusetts are now into their third night without power.

Residents on Edendale Street in Springfield expressed frustration and concerns and told 22News that Eversource has been on their street for the past two days but crews were able to make repairs.

A tree removal company finally got the okay to remove a massive tree entangled in wires and on houses but that won’t resolve the outage problem. A utility power needs to be replaced before the lights are back on for Edendale households.

Many residents have been forced to throw away food, expensive medicine, and go without medical equipment.

“There’s a guy down the street he sleeps with a C-pack on of course, two nights now no C-pack. I have diabetes, my medicine is in the fridge and before I got the generator it was in the fridge all day,” Patsy Champigmy told 22News.

During peak outages almost 20,000 people were without power in Springfield alone.

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno told 22News that according to Eversource, Springfield’s power should be restored by Thursday night. “They’ve told me everything should be done today by this evening. Hopefully it doesn’t go all the way to midnight. I’ve heard some surrounding towns are talking about Saturday, Sunday going into Monday.”

Mayor Sarno and Congressman Richard Neal toured some of the damage done by Tropical Storm Isaias in Springfield Thursday afternoon. They were joined by the Executive Director for Parks, Buildings, and Recreational Management Patrick Sullivan in Forest Park.

On Wednesday, Mayor Sarno declared a state of emergency due to the storm. Isaias took town trees and power lines and left many residents without power, some of which are still in the dark two days later.

In addition, there was a major water main break on East Columbus Avenue which left most of the city without water or with low water pressure.