As a power outage for about 14 percent of Seymour dragged on for almost 24 hours, First Selectman Kurt Miller said he was “extremely frustrated” with the storm response of Eversource, the company that supplies electricity to town.
“They clearly were not prepared for this,” Miller said.
Eversource is now estimating power should be restored to Seymour around 6 p.m., according to Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross.
Note: Power starting coming back online about 9 p.m., according to Facebook readers.
“We understand the First Selectman’s concerns,” Gross said in an email. “The storm caused significant damage in numerous communities that we serve including blocked roads, broken utility poles and downed lines. We’ve had hundreds of crews working round-the-clock.”
The statement continued:
“Our priority is to always respond as safely and quickly as possible to restore power to all of our customers. Power will be restored for a majority of Seymour customers by approximately 6 p.m. We work closely with the leaders in communities we serve, we value those relationships and we will be following up with Mr. Miller to address his concerns.”
A powerful thunderstorm Tuesday afternoon knocked down trees and downed wires all over town.
There were no injuries reported.
The Bungay Road corridor was among the areas hit hardest. Tri-Town Plaza was without power Wednesday, including the movie theater.
Miller said Eversource said the problems would be repaired and power would be restored by 11 a.m. Wednesday, but that deadline came and went.
“The information they are giving out is not accurate. There is no coordination among their crews. They said power would be restored at 11 a.m. That was their projected time. And they didn’t even have crews working on the wires until much later,” Miller said.
Miller said some trees were cleared from Bungay Road, for example, but Eversource crews then left to go to Waterbury.
He said DPW crews aren’t allowed to remove fallen trees near downed power lines.
Miller said neighbors along Bungay Road told him that some of the downed trees had actually been marked with tags previously by the utility company, and were supposed to be trimmed to keep the trees away from power lines.
“It’s just very frustrating,” Miller said. “It’s unacceptable.”
As of 3:15 p.m., Eversource repair crews were on both ends of Bungay Road making repairs.
Meanwhile, 1,021 Eversource customers in Seymour (14 percent of all Eversource customers in Seymour) were without power Wednesday afternoon. That percentage actually increased 2 percent from 8 a.m.
Seymour had the third highest number of Eversource customers without power in the state, according to the company’s website. Only Durham and East Haddam had larger numbers.
Miller sent out “Code Red” robocalls to keep the public informed and also posted updates on Facebook. The town advised residents without power that the library and the town’s community center could both be used as cooling centers.
At 3 p.m. Wednesday Miller said there were no plans to open a shelter, but officials are monitoring the situation.
