Update: Shelton has opened a shelter, Seymour is planning to do so.
As of 8:45 a.m., about 20,800 people were without power in the lower Naugatuck Valley.
Neither CL&P nor United Illuminating had power restoration estimates Tuesday morning.
Here are the numbers, according to CL&P and United Illuminating (note — we’re updating these figures on the home page under ‘extra,extra’):
Ansonia: 1,008 (11.9 percent)
Derby: 2,134 (34.1 percent)
Oxford: 2,729 (51 percent)
Seymour: 5,504 (73 percent)
Shelton: 9,420 (54 percent)
Seymour saw a 20 percent spike overnight.
Click here for a list of roads closed Tuesday morning, as reported by Valley Indy readers.
Click here for comments from Valley residents made during the storm.
At a press conference in Hartford Tuesday morning, Tony Marone, a vice-president with United Illuminating, said it looks like substations that were taken offline Monday night in Bridgeport could be brought back online sometime Tuesday — assuming there is no damage to underground “vaults” that are connected to the substations.
The Bridgeport substation is important because it feeds an unspecified number of UI customers in Shelton.
Marone credited the “heroic” efforts of UI crews, the National Guard and Bridgeport firefighters for keeping flood waters from damaging the substation. Had the UI substations been flooded, outages in the area would last for weeks, Marone said.
UI crews will be assessing wire damage today and working with local public works departments to clear roads. Other crews will assess line damage and complete work orders to pass along to repair crews.
“We are working our plan. We’ve got the resources in place,” Marone said.
CL&P is following a similar plan. In addition, CL&P will be sending out a helicopter to assess the damage to its heavy-duty transmission lines.
Line crews do not go up in bucket trucks when wind speeds reach 40 mph. However, utility crews don’t expect the wind to be a significant hurdle today. They’re obviously keeping an eye on wind speeds.
