Shifting Roles for a Storm

Our employees work across a wide range of roles — from engineering and operations to customer service and corporate support.

But when a storm approaches, everything changes.

We activate our storm response and many of our employees take on temporary storm roles that are quite different from their day-to-day responsibilities.

Meet Desirae Dodge

As an electric service designer, Desirae Dodge understands what the electric system is supposed to look like and how it operates. 

At her day job she designs how the electric services will work in new homes, for upgrades to existing homes, and for those adding solar or an electric vehicle charger.

In a big storm with multiple outages, it's a valuable skill in her role as a damage assessor. "You know what to look for," she said.

Damage assessors are the first people on scene to survey the damage and to evaluate what equipment and personnel may be needed to safely and quickly restore power.

"The first thing we're looking out for is the safety of the customers and the safety of our (Eversource) team," she said. "We don't know what we are walking into."

Sometimes, damage assessors have to search for the problem.

Calls from customers are crucial to help narrow down locations for potential damage and the cause of outages. "We are looking to see if anything could be damaged or differentiating from our system during normal conditions," she added.

After the damage is assessed, the information is sent to coordinators where priorities are evaluated and crews and resources are deployed to begin restoring power when it is safe to do so. Proper assessment is a crucial step in the restoration process.