Photo by Jason Edwards
North Main Street in Seymour Tuesday.
Utility companies warned Wednesday it could take days to restore the thousands of people without electricity after high winds from Tropical Storm Isaiah took down trees, branches, and electrical lines Tuesday.
More than 600,000 Eversource customers were without power in the state as of 12 p.m. Wednesday.
The lower Valley Eversource stats were as follows:
Beacon Falls: 148 customers out (or 5.2 percent of all Eversource customers in Beacon Falls)
Naugatuck: 3,907 (26.8 percent of town)
Oxford: 4,737 (83.1 percent of town)
Seymour: 3,309 (43.1 percent of town)
Those stats reveal an increase in people losing power in Beacon Falls, Oxford and Seymour between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m.
In a Code Red message to residents, Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller said the town is “at the mercy” of Eversource.
“There are currently no Eversource crews in Seymour, which is a huge problem,” Miller said at noon Wednesday. “They hope to have crews in Seymour to begin surveying the damage later today.”
Miller urged residents to obey detours when posted and to stay away from downed trees and wires.
“Please understand we are doing all that we can but are at the mercy of Eversource at this point,” Miller said.
In a Code Red phone call Wednesday afternoon, Oxford First Selectman George Temple said one crew from Eversource was working in town. He did not know when more would arrive. Temple also said he thought it would take several days to get all of Oxford back online.
Temple said he declared a state of emergency in Oxford, which helps to free up federal reimbursement money. Temple further noted that DPW crews can’t clear trees or tree branches that are on wires. It is too dangerous.
Every fire house in Oxford has a hose outside residents can use if they need water.
Temple closed his call with: “If you are annoyed, well, so am I. I guess we are both going to have to get over it.”
In a statement Wednesday, Eversource noted power had been restored to 100,000 people across the state but a tough road was ahead.
“The impact from this storm, in terms of power outages, is greater than Superstorm Sandy,” said Eversource Vice-President of Electric Operations in Connecticut, Michael Hayhurst. “The fierce winds with this storm caused widespread power outages and historic damage, affecting customers in all of the 149 communities we serve in Connecticut.”
The utility company was planning to use helicopters to survey about 17,000 miles of overhead equipment.
Eversource said complete restoration for all customers will take “multiple days.”
Most towns were not saying when crews would be around to pick up branches and trees. Town officials said picking up debris was not yet a priority.
Many United Illuminating customers were without power Wednesday, too.
As of 1:30 p.m. Wednesday:
Ansonia 864 UI customers were without power (10 percent of all UI customers in Ansonia)
Derby 356 (residents, by the way, can put tree branches on the curb but they can’t be more than 4 feet long and it may take days to be removed)
Shelton 10,953 (58.8 percent of the city)
UI crews made significant progress in Derby, as the number of customers out at 6 a.m. was 1,214.
The video below was posted by the Derby Fire Department at 1 p.m. Wednesday:
The Shelton Officer of Emergency Management sent a robocall saying that although UI crews were out working, the utility company was not providing city government with restoration estimates. The call noted Shelton City Hall was closed and urged people not to use generators in garages.
Portable generators must run outside to limit the chance of carbon monoxide poisoning.
UI issued a statement Wednesday afternoon saying the company was making progress — power had been restored to 32,000 customers since the storm — but also warned it will take awhile to make all repairs.
“Tropical Storm Isaias was a significant weather event, comparable to major storms Connecticut has faced in the past,” said Tony Marone, UI’s President and CEO. “We saw damage across our electric system, in all of the 17 towns and cities we serve, with more than 1,600 outage-causing events and more than 1,000 wires down that for safety reasons crews must address.”
Gov. Ned Lamont declared a state of emergency shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday. That declaration covers all of Connecticut. Later Wednesday he ordered an investigation into the power companies’ storm prep & response.
Click here for a story from CT News Junkie.
