ADIRONDACKS — It was almost bedtime on the night of March 23 when Walter Davignon said the lights flickered and then everthing was black.

Residents in the southern Hamilton County town of Hope are accustomed to power outages, Davignon said, but there was no stormy weather that night, not even a car accident along Route 30.

Though the cause was not immediately apparent, it was soon evident that a power surge had destroyed appliances in numerous homes and in many cases the electrical service connections to those homes, Davignon said.

Davignon lost a television and a computer to the surge. Some of his neighbors lost refrigerators and other equipment, he said.

Those losses, and initial compensation promises that Davignon said National Grid representatives made to customers, are at the center of a continuing dispute between residents and the power company.

Formal claims were made to National Grid but in April, claimants, including the town of Hope, which lost computers at Town Hall, were informed that an investigation determined the failure of an insulator that allowed two lines to touch was not foreseeable or the result of negligence.

Claims were denied.

But this week the company has indicated it is reconsidering.

National Grid spokesman Patrick Stella said Thursday that while the company is still not accepting responsibility for the losses, it has decided to review the situation again and would “like to offer assistance.” Stella said assistance may include compensating customers for ruined appliances, and he said residents in the affected area who have not submitted claims are urged to do so. He said customers needing information about a claim may call 433-3038.

Davignon said he was informed by National Grid claims representatives that a decision on paying the claims will be made Tuesday.

Stella said 150 to 200 customers may have been affected by the outage. He said about 55 customers filed claims.

“We recognize that customers have sustained hardship,” Stella said, and the damage may have gone as far north as Wells and Morehouse in Hamilton County.

Hope town Supervisor Robert Edwards said the issue of whether the company was negligent in maintaining its equipment seems irrelevant.

“It was not an act of God or something else,” Edwards said. “So if it was an equipment failure it certainly wasn’t the customers’ fault.”

Edwards said National Grid should reimburse every one of the affected customers. The town filed a claim of $758.84. With a $1,000 deductible clause in the town’s insurance policy, Edwards said, the town is out of options.

Joanne Rossano said she lost two televisions and a microwave oven. She said she did not save receipts on those purchases and is having difficulty putting a dollar value on the items.

Davignon said many people who did not file claims have already disposed of damaged items and will not be able to supply National Grid with the product information it may require in its claims process.

Rossano said she believes National Grid’s responsibility is clear.

“When I cause an accident, I pay for it,” she said.