Crews from CL&P and United Illuminating made significant progress Wednesday in the effort to restore electricity to thousands of residents in the Valley.
Hurricane Irene, which entered Connecticut late Saturday night into Sunday and quickly became a tropical storm, resulted in two deaths in the state and badly damaged houses on the state’s shoreline. At the height of the storm, 22,000 residents took refuge in shelters.
The biggest issue locally has been the restoration of power, which had seemed to have stalled by Wednesday morning.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal is scheduled to make stops today (Thursday, Sept. 1) in Oxford, Seymour and Shelton to speak with town officials and look at Irene damage.
Shelton Numbers Drop
In Shelton, after Mayor Mark Lauretti embarked on a morning radio blitz to complain about a lack of communication with United Illuminating, the percentage of UI customers without power dropped dramatically.
Roughly 7,000 customers — or about 40 percent of Shelton — was without power Wednesday morning.
As of 6 a.m. Thursday, the number of customers out dropped to 2,688 — or 15 percent.
Oxford
As of 10:30 a.m. Thursday 2,001 CL&P customers in Oxford were still without electricity. That is 38 percent of all CL&P customers in town. The percentage had gone as high as 90 percent this week.
Frustrated Oxford resident Jim Hansen of Greenbriar Road wondered Thursday where the repair crews were. He shot video Thursday of wires down in Oxford, along with a video of a CL&P substation.
Here are Hansen’s videos, which he posted to Twitter (note, ads play first):
Another:
CL&P has started to post restoration times on its website. However, Oxford information is not posted.
Note: Hansen reported on Twitter at noon Thursday: ​“UPDATE: I JUST GOT POWER!! WOOHOO!!! YIPPIE YAP! ZING-POW-BANG!!!”
As of Thursday morning, two of the three Oxford schools that had lost power during the storm got it restored, according to Interim Superintendent James Connelly.
Great Oak Middle School and Quaker Farms School now have power, according to Connelly.
Oxford High School is still running of a generator. Oxford Center School didn’t lose power.
Ansonia, Derby
In Ansonia, 907 UI customers did not have service Thursday morning — 11 percent of all customers there.
In Derby, 222 people were out Thursday morning, down a percentage point from Wednesday.
However, power still has not been restored to Derby High School.
A UI tree crew is expected to clear a mess of broken tree branches and tangled wires in the woods behind the school today (Thursday, Sept. 1)
Charles Sampson, the city’s director of emergency management, complained about UI’s response Tuesday.
On Wednesday, UI tree crews arrived in Derby to clear branches and trees on power lines. Restoration crews — the people that actually fix the lines — could be in Derby today (Thursday, Sept. 1).
Mayor Anthony Staffieri sent the Valley Indy an e‑mail Wednesday night authored by Sampson saying that as of 3 p.m. Wednesday:
- Tree crews have cleared all of Derby Neck Road, Great Hill Road, Atwater Avenue and have started work on the 800 block of Hawthorne Avenue.
- The Coon Hollow picnic grove has been closed due to a tree that has fallen on the power lines.
Seymour
Just 2 percent of Seymour was without power Thursday morning — that’s 175 customers.
On Monday night, 85 percent of the town was out.
“Our (CL&P) representative said one of the reasons that we have had power restored is that the Seymour Public Works Department did a great job in clearing the roads,” Seymour First Selectman Paul Roy said in an e‑mail to the Valley Indy. ​“Their work made it easier for the CL&P crews to do their work. The town appreciates what our public works team did.”
Response Questioned
At a press conference Wednesday evening, reporters grilled Gov. Dannel Malloy and the top executives of CL&P and UI about staffing levels and whether an investigation into the response is warranted.
Click here to read a story from CT News Junkie on the issue.
Regarding staffing levels, Gov. Malloy said:
“Let’s be honest. There is no way these utilities could supply 900 or 1,200 crews 52 weeks a year … and provide affordable electricity. And, by the way, I’m not sure electric is affordable under the current structure.”
According to information from the press conference, after a storm such as Irene, 60 to 70 percent of people get their electricity back within three to six days.
The rest usually take 10 days.
“They are making great progress and I think you ought to be proud,” said William Bryan, a deputy assistant secretary for infrastructure security and energy restoration with the federal Department of Energy.
