ATTLEBORO — Sandcastle Estates, a mobile home park for people 55 and older was plagued by power failures this week, which residents say endangered their health.
The failures, which occurred on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday during one of the hottest weeks of the summer, cut power to life-sustaining equipment relied upon by some of the elderly residents, as well as air conditioning relied on by all.
Temperatures ranging from 93 to 96 degrees settled over the area Sunday through Tuesday while Wednesday was in the 80s, according to the Attleboro Water Department.
Those temperatures were coupled with dew points in the 70s, which are tropical, and made the “feels-like temperature” 100 degrees or more.
A spokesperson for National Grid, which supplies electricity to the park, said the power failures “(have) our attention” and that help is on the way.
“We want these residents to know that the recent increase in frequency of cable failures in this area has our attention and we are initiating work to replace the existing cable with 2022 style cable in conduit,” Christine Milligan, principal program manager for media relations, told The Sun Chronicle in an email.
“We will be on site in the next few days to design a plan and expect to begin replacement in the next few weeks. We expect the new cable will dramatically improve reliability in this area.”
Milligan said the power failures stemmed from increased electrical demand due to the high temperatures. Higher demand for power brought on by the heat “put additional stress on the buried cable and caused it to fail,” she said.
The cable was installed in the 1980s and is due for replacement, Milligan added.
The three power failures affected 54, 54 and 11 homes, respectively, she said.
Park owner Crow Holdings, which bought Sandcastle earlier this year for nearly $18.8 million and is headquartered in Dallas with an office in Boston, did not respond to a request for comment.
The park is on Mendon Road in South Attleboro.
Residents Pamela Barnes, who lives on Robin Hood Lane, said the first power failure occurred just before 2 a.m. Sunday and lasted 5 1/2 hours.
The second came at 12:39 a.m. Tuesday and also lasted 5 1/2 hours, and the third occurred on just after 5 p.m. Wednesday and lasted 4 1/4 hours.
Barnes said one of her neighbors, who relies on a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine to breathe at night, woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t catch her breath.
“She was terrified,” Barnes said.
CPAP machines are used to treat obstructive sleep apnea.
Barnes wrote a letter to the editor of The Sun Chronicle about the issue.
“This week’s (15.25) hours of lost power has caused undue stress and anxiety among the residents living in the community,” she wrote. “We need action to hold the power company responsible for fixing this problem once and for all… This week has been the most recent and egregious of outages.”
“The population of Sandcastle includes many for whom electric service is critical to their health and well-being,” Barnes wrote. “Many folks are on oxygen, CPAP machines, or dialysis, just to name a few examples…”
The problem has been going on for several years and affects a specific area of the park that includes 54 of Sandcastle’s 172 units, Barnes said.
Another resident said the park was built in the 1980s with underground wiring and conduits were not required at that time.
“(N)ow the infrastructure is crumbling,” Linda Hill said in an email. “National Grid was here 3-4 times this week…apparently, they won’t completely re-wire the park, only fix the problems as they occur. The owners of the park refuse to do anything. This is a health hazard for so many of the elderly who live here.”
Barnes did not stop with a letter to the editor. She said she contacted Mayor Paul Heroux, the state’s Public Utilities Commission, the state Attorney General’s office and National Grid.
“Three power failures in one week was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Barnes said.
George W. Rhodes can be reached at 508-236-0432.
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