NEWPORT, R.I. — A Newport woman is sounding the alarm about a cascade of neurological, gastrointestinal and “general vibe-based” health issues she attributes entirely to Revolution Wind, the 65-turbine offshore wind farm that began sending power to the grid this month from 15 miles off the Rhode Island coast.
Linda Theodosiana Whitcombe, 54, a lifelong Newport resident and proprietor of ClipFlip — an Etsy storefront specializing in refurbished nail clippers — said she began experiencing symptoms within hours of the turbines going online, a timeline she considers damning.
“I woke up that morning and I just knew,” said Whitcombe. “My left arm felt funny. My right arm also felt funny, but differently. Something was off.” She paused to scrape old toejam from a clipper head with a dental pick. “This is exactly what I warned everybody on Facebook about.”
Whitcombe said she has since cataloged numerous symptoms, including migraines, eye pressure, numbness, insomnia, vivid dreams, fatigue, hyperactivity, brain fog, back pain, front pain, dizziness and what she described, reluctantly, as “loose stools.”
The fine-motor disruption has been the most professionally consequential. ClipFlip’s restoration process requires painstaking tasks, including spring tensioning, jaw plate realignment and final edge honing. Earlier this week, she cross-threaded a pivot pin on a 1987 Revlon Pro — a costly mistake she blamed on the turbines.
Whitcombe does not believe the turbines are primarily about energy. Her theory, developed with extensive amounts of TikTok research, is that Revolution Wind was installed by Newport’s hospitality industry to push inconvenient weather systems offshore before they can ruin a wedding at Marble House or an outdoor luncheon on Bowen’s Wharf.
“This is what Big Tourism does”, she said. The “power grid” explanation, she says, is what they tell the public.
As for the Preservation Society of Newport County — which has filed a federal lawsuit against the project, citing its visual impact on the city’s historic landmarks — Whitcombe was unmoved.
“They’re in on it,” she said. “They just want a cut.” She added that the Vanderbilts “still control everything from behind the scenes,” despite the family not having a substantial Newport presence for decades.
Officials representing the wind farm declined to comment on Whitcombe’s theory regarding the installation’s purpose, adding that the turbines operate “well below any established threshold for sound impact at residential distances.”
As for Whitcombe’s digestive issues, officials suggested she “might consider increasing her dietary fiber intake.”
In the meantime, Whitcombe is taking action. She has ordered Shungite crystals, activated charcoal tea, and an EMF-shielding bra liner. “Gotta protect the girls,” she said.