ALLSTON, MASS. (WHDH) - Hundreds of Allston residents were forced to sweat out a sweltering night at home after power was cut throughout the neighborhood due to electrical work Saturday night.
Although power was restored by early Sunday morning, some residents were outraged that Eversource’s electrical work had to take place while a heatwave smothered the area.
“This is just ridiculous. In the middle of a heat wave there should be no way they’re doing any kind of anything, other than repairing people that are losing power because of the heat,” one Allston woman told 7NEWS.
“It was horrible,” said Justin Grim. “Very hot, kind of like it is out here. It’s kind of how it was inside trying to sleep, tough to do for sure, but you come to expect it this of year I guess”
According to Eversource, while the electrical work was precautionary, the timing was necessary in order to ensure uninterrupted power to two local hospitals.
“We are proactively taking steps to minimize the impact of this work, which is being done on a portion of the electric systems that serve two local hospitals. These repairs need to happen as soon as possible with the forecasted peak of the heatwave yet to come,” the New England energy company said in a statement.
Allston officials opened up the Veronica Smith Senior Center as a cooling center for those in need of relief from the heat.
While inconvenient, some Allston residents told 7NEWS they were at least glad the shutdown didn’t take place in the middle of the day.
“I don’t think there’s any point where it would be convenient for the A/C to be off but it’s fine,” said an Allston man. “If there has to be a time, at least we’ll be able to sleep through it.”
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)