David Graves is the voice of National Grid. He’s the one who informs the media how many crews are in the field working diligently to restore power, or that at the height of the storm 121,000 customers lost electricity, or, as is more frequently the case, that a “squirrel” is at fault for frying a transformer that has left a neighborhood in the black.

He’s been out in the field in the wake of hurricanes, blizzards and ice storms, so it wasn’t surprising to find him with Channel 12 on Brewster Street in Chatham Village Thursday afternoon. Graves kept an eye that the TV crew didn’t stray into the path of a contractor installing new utility poles, followed by linesmen who would string up the confusion of wires that resembled black spaghetti. The news crew wanted to know whether there would still be “action” for the 5 p.m. live shot, or should they set up elsewhere.

That’s the kind of question Graves is good at answering. The media likes it when they know what to expect, when they get some hard numbers and projections, and when they have it by deadline.

So Graves was caught off guard when he was asked a personal question: How does Tuesday’s storm that zeroed in on Warwick and Cranston compare to everything else he’s seen in more than 20 years as National Grid spokesman?

“Well,” he started off, “in Hurricane Irene, 344,000 of our 485,000 Rhode Island customers lost power, and it was six or seven days before it was fully restored.”

He carried on with the statistics. During Hurricane Sandy, 107,000 lost power, and it was four days before service was completely restored.

“We’ve restored more in two days than in four days after Sandy,” he said.

There was more to his point. In the case of Irene and Sandy, National Grid, and for that matter everyone else, had two to three days advance warning. Grid was prepared. Crews were on standby and staged.

Tuesday was entirely different.

“This came on us in five minutes,” he said.

Graves worked his smart phone to get the latest numbers. A total of 4,800 customers were still without power; 300 line crews, of which 80 were in Warwick, were on the job, and 130 tree crews were busy. All but five customers had their power restored by Saturday morning, according to Fire Chief Edmund Armstrong.

But what about this storm compared to others?

This was a question off the grid, so to speak. Graves reflected.

“I’ve never seen tree damage like this,” he said. “The closest comparison was a heavy, wet snow storm a couple of years ago that fell branches like a box of toothpicks had spilled on the floor.”

He was right. If any had seen worse, they weren’t forthcoming in a tour that included a stop in Chatham Village, the Lakeshore Drive neighborhood and the compost station near Mickey Stevens Sports Complex with its pyramid of storm debris.

Patricia Pollock, who overlooks the airport and the new Winslow Park fields, never saw anything like it. It was 6:06 Tuesday morning – she remembers the time exactly – when she pulled open the kitchen curtains.

“It looked like midnight,” she said. Then there was a crash that sounded awfully close to where she was standing. Seconds later came a second crash. Pollock didn’t take any chances. She sat down on the front of the sink, where she stayed for about 20 minutes as the storm raged.

“I was petrified,” she said.

Finding the courage yet shaking, she started surveying the damage. In a stairwell, feet from the kitchen, a limb four inches in diameter broke though the roof. Water was running into the house. Another limb poked through the ceiling of an adjoining room. Insulation and debris were scattered across the floor, and her computer was soaked.

Outside trees had smashed her deck and blocked her car. She called her insurance agent and was told to book in at a hotel for the night. But the designated hotel was without power.

Pollock ended up sleeping in her car with “one eye open” just to ensure her house was safe. Wednesday night she found a room in another Warwick hotel, only for it to lose power 10 minutes after she was checked in. The ultimate insult came after she finally went to sleep. All the lights came back on and she was up again wondering when life as normal might resume.

“I feel like a nomad already,” she said.

Others in the neighborhood fared better, although as of Thursday afternoon, two full days after the storm, some streets remained impassable and wires were strewn about.

A 53-year resident of the area, Richard Burke said the neighborhood, which has limited access, is usually the last to see tree and line crews. This time was different.

“They were so much faster than the past. They were really quick. They did a great job,” said Richard’s wife, Brenda.

Richard agreed.

“They came in like an army,” he said.

Graves wasn’t there to hear Brenda. He was still across the pond managing news crews.