National Grid: Power back on for majority of Rhode Island residents

It was two days without power for many, but the lights are coming on in Rhode Island.

By 5:30 p.m. Friday, National Grid said 91 percent of customers had power.

Crews were out in the Wakefield area as late at 7:30 p.m.

"I think the winds were a lot worse than we expected," explained John Romano, of South Kingstown, who lost power for almost two full days.

Nearly 300 National Grid field crews were dispersed to various parts of the state.

"We've lived down here for 40 years and it's happened many times. We keep saying we're going to get a generator but no we haven't," said Romano.

In Charlestown, dozens of families suffered outages as well.

"Candles, out to dinner, we debated on getting a hotel room," said Robert Eastin.

Eastin said it was evident of how many people were out of power when he went looking for a generator.

"We drove to multiple home depot’s to try and find a generator but everyone was sold out," explained Eastin.

Some families booked themselves into hotels, others found relatives to host them.

"It puts you in a little turmoil because you expect to have lights and water also, we're on well water also so that's why we have to find somewhere else to stay," explained Romano.

Thankfully crews from out of town arrived quickly. Some from Ohio, others over the line in Connecticut.

While customers said they weren't exactly pleased with the length of time, they're thankful to have power back as of Friday night.

"8 p.m. this evening and we just found out that it came back on," smiled Romano.

Crews expected to continue working much of the night.