Valley Independent Sentinel

Seymour’s Power Grid Is Returning

by Ethan Fry | Oct 31, 2012 8:24 pm

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Posted to: Seymour, Frankenstorm

Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller said Wednesday utility crews have switched from “make safe” to full recovery mode and the percentage of Seymour residents should start decreasing rapidly Thursday.

“We’re in full restoration mode at this point. We have three crews in Seymour currently,” Miller said at his office in Town Hall Wednesday afternoon.

As of 6:44 p.m. CL&P reported on its website that 3,348 customers in Seymour were without power, about 44 percent of the town. By 8:30 p.m., the percent dropped to 29 percent.

Those are steep increases from noon Wednesday, when the utility reported 4,129 customers in the dark.

Power restorations is following a strategic plan based on a priority list, Miller said.

“We need to make sure that the senior houses are up, we need to make sure that the schools are up, those types of things,” Miller said. “There’s a priority list that we follow and as we follow that list it picks up more and more residents.”

While restoring certain lines may get a greater number of customers online, officials prioritize based on need.

“They don’t go after lines just because this line’s going to put a thousand people back on, because some people can fare a little bit better without power than others,” he said.

The town’s roads are largely clear, he said. Seymour will also open its “powering and showering station” at Seymour Middle School, 211 Mountain Road, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday.

“We’ve eliminated everything of danger on roads,” Miller said. “There are still some trees hanging and things, but CL&P’s estimation is that they’re not an imminent danger, so they’ll circle back around for those.”

Miller issued a message via the Code Red alert system about 5:30 p.m. Thursday telling residents that the restoration process had begun.

Other items he noted in the message:

• Town Hall will be open tomorrow for its regular business hours from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. On Friday, the Town Clerk’s Office as well as the Tax Collector’s Office will be open from 9 a.m. until noon.

• On Thursday, the Registrar of Voters will be available from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. to allow people to register to vote.

• The Transfer Station will be open Thursday and Friday until 5pm for brush and tree disposal only. Household garbage will only be accepted until 2:45 during the normal hours.

• Curbside tree and brush pick up will be scheduled in the next week or so to assist residents with storm clean up. More information will follow on this.

Miller lauded the work done in recent days by the town’s public works employees, as well as the police and fire departments and ambulance association

“All the credit goes to the emergency management team we have in place,” he said. “These guys were very well-organized, just very calm, very good at what they were doing. And it made it much easier for me. The credit goes to them for their hard work.”

“Our public works guys have basically been working around the clock,” he added. “These guys took a beating with the work that they put in.”

While some residents may be frustrated by the protracted power outage, Miller asked them to summon what understanding they could.

“They’re going as quickly as they can,” he said of restoration crews. “It’s tough to ask for patience, but the end is coming, it’s just a matter of when.”

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