CONCORD — Utilities have homework from the state’s Executive Council, which wants to look at their response and preparedness for the late October snowstorm that left up to two feet of snow and tens of thousands of customers in the dark for days.

The council wants to know the 10-year history of right-of-way tree clearing budgets for each utility, among other facts, said Executive Councilor Chris Sununu, whose constituents in the southeastern part of the state were hard hit and talking to him.

“We need a lot more clarification,” he said to their questions, following the council meeting Wednesday with the companies, the governor and members of the Public Utilities Commission, which regulates them.

Sununu said a report will be issued by the council after the holidays on the utilities’ response and how to be better prepared for future weather events.

“It was an excellent first step,” Sununu said of the question-and-answer exchange in the Executive Council chamber, Wednesday.

Public Service of New Hampshire President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Long said state laws related to tree cutting make it hard to maintain.

Still, he said, 60 to 80 percent of the damage from the Oct. 29-30 storm was from outside that right-of-way area.

On distribution lines, utilities generally have 15 feet of right of way in each direction of the wire.

Outside that, a law limits utility crews from immediately cutting and instead invokes a 45-day process with the landowner, he said. Another law about scenic roadways forces the utility to go to the town for permission and hold a public hearing for non-emergency cutting.

Long praised his company’s response to the damaging storm, which had deeper implications for its sister utility, Connecticut Light and Power, whom in normal circumstances might have been here to help. The power of the storm was particularly hard in southern and central New England and took two weeks to return lights there. State regulators and the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office are investigating the response of the Northeast Utilities unit.

Gov. John Lynch framed the discussion here in New Hampshire as a learning opportunity.

In addition to Long, he welcomed to the table Chris Hodgdon, Comcast state director; Tim Horn of National Grid; Fred Anderson of NH Electric Cooperative; Bob Schoenberger, chief executive office of Unitil New Hampshire; Patrick McHugh of FairPoint; Chris Pope, director of homeland security for the state; and members of the PUC.

Councilors said they have been hearing from constituents, particularly those who are customers of PSNH, complaining that the slow response also impacted businesses and schools and severely disrupted normal life.

Long said he understood that emotional response but felt proud of the efforts made by his company, calling it a “success story.”

“One hundred percent of these outages were related to trees,” Long said, noting there was a big change in the forecast from Thursday to Friday — and that was “when we really pulled the trigger.”

The storm fell on a Saturday, with the heaviest snow overnight — a heavy, wet snow on trees, many still with their leaves. The southern part of the state was particularly hard-hit by downed limbs and trees that knocked out wires.

Schoenberger said Unitil had called on Thursday for back-up crews from as far away as Michigan. His customers were back on line within 72 hours, he said.

PSNH, meanwhile had 237,000 customers without power at one point — and 131,303 customers still out on the third day, 80,224 on the fourth day and 29,468 still without power on the fifth day. All PSNH customers had power restored by Day 7, according to the utility.

Unitil “got lucky,” Long said, and when its crews were freed up, they helped PSNH.

Predicting reinforcements and who may or may not be in the storm path can be tricky, utility officials said.

The council will look at whether weather forecasting may have been part of the problem. In addition to preparedness, the council’s study will look at maintenance of the lines with particular consideration to limb and tree clearing.

In the case of NH Electric Cooperative, which had 19,000 of its members out at peak, it was a 48-hour event.

Just before Thanksgiving, another snowstorm left 16,500 of NHEC’s customers without service. All were returned to power within 24 hours and no outside utilities were asked to restore power, said Seth Wheeler, spokesman. He considered that storm to be one of the best examples of NHEC’s turnaround ability.

He said the company’s “bird dogs” went out to scout known trouble areas and notified a dispatch center what would be needed to get operations back. Operations supervisors knew line priority and sequencing to get the most customers back on fastest, he noted.

Wheeler noted in both storms, PSNH’s transmission lines worked, thus allowing power to flow once to the cooperative’s distribution lines were up and running.

He added that PSNH had 277 of its distribution poles to replace in that storm, a staggering number, with pole replacement being labor-intensive.

“With a storm like this, it’s a multiple-day event,” Wheeler said.

He suggested the state’s utilities have a more coordinated response to these weather events and to pool operations, communications and resources in storms.

Wheeler said he did not know the NHEC budget for the right-of-way maintenance.

Long said he would like more freedom in tree trimming.

In its own report on its handling of the October northeaster, PSNH noted “a common misunderstanding is that PSNH and its professional contractors can trim and cut whatever and whenever the need arises, and that more could have been done to prevent the outages associated.”

It cites RSA 231:172, which requires utilities to notify customers of planned trimming and gives them 45 days to refuse permission for non-emergency tree work.

It also cited RSA 231:157 related to scenic roads. Utilities cannot remove any tree without first getting the approval of the community planning board, and after a public notice and hearing.”

In a typical year the report said PSNH has 95 tree trimming crews on its 13,000 miles of line and schedules maintenance on a four- to five-year rotation.