As the Valley cleans up from Irene’s winds and rain, it’s the no. 1 question everyone is asking — “When’s the damn electricity coming back!?!?”
And, on Monday evening, there was an answer.
Sort of.
Speaking at a press conference with Gov. Dannel Malloy, representatives from CL&P and United Illuminating said it could be up to a week until they have power restored everywhere in the state.
“People should be prepared for lengthy outages, yes,” said Jeff Butler, CL&P president. “That’s not all customers. There will be customers that we expect to be out a week or more. That message is still going out.”
“We understand the frustration and the pain that is in our community,” said John Prete, a senior vice president at United Illuminating.
Irene hit the state Saturday and into Sunday.
On Monday, some 21,000 people in the lower Valley were still without electricity.
That included 80 percent of the CL&P customers in Oxford and 85 percent in Seymour Monday morning.
In Shelton, 50 percent of the city did not have power.
By 11 p.m. Monday, parts of Seymour were coming back online, along with some of Shelton. Oxford, however, saw a spike in power outages.
The numbers in the Valley Monday, as of 11 p.m.:
- Ansonia (UI): 1,700 or 20 percent
- Derby (UI): 780 or 5 percent
- Oxford (CL&P): 4,782 or 90 percent
- Seymour (CL&P): 5,135 or 85 percent
- Shelton (UI): 7,223 or 50 percent
Spokesmen for the two utilities could not give specific time frames as to when the lights would be back on for the towns covered by the Valley Indy.
However, utility crews were spotted in Oxford and Seymour Monday.
“UI is telling us it could be three days until we restore the power,” said John Milo, Shelton’s Director of Emergency Management. “They’re in the ‘making safe’ process. Taking down trees.”
The Waiting Is The Hardest Part
Did you see the caravan of noisy white bucket trucks leaving the former Crabtree auto dealership on Bridgeport Avenue Monday morning?
They were from United Illuminating subcontractor Lewis Tree Service, based in Florida.
The crews will be removing hundreds of trees that were knocked down during the storm. After that, the utility workers will make repairs.
UI has 3,000 miles of utility wires in Fairfield and New Haven counties.
“Right now we’re making the area safe for the line restoration and construction crews,” said Ken Bullard, who oversees the tree removal process for UI.
The repair process involves inspecting the damaged power lines, then removing trees and other hazards. Then utility crews fix the lines and related equipment.
United Illuminating called Lewis Tree Service before the storm hit, and crews drove up “parallel with the storm,” Bullard said.
The crews arrived in Connecticut late Sunday night after driving 14 and 28 hours from North Carolina and Florida, Bullard said.
The work day started at 8 a.m. Monday with planning meetings. Sixty tree-clearing crews were on the streets by 11 a.m.
“For someone who has no lights, it might seem like a delay,” Bullard said.
But, Bullard said, the state doesn’t staff for storm response because hurricanes are so rare, so they had to mobilize crews from elsewhere to get the job done.
During a press conference Monday, Malloy said the utilities usually call on crews from nearby states for help during major problems. That isn’t the case now, because Hurricane Irene cut such a huge swath across the eastern seaboard.
More repair crews are on their way to Connecticut from the west coast, Malloy said.
United Illuminating posted this message from its CEO, Jim Torgerson, Monday. Article continues after the video.
The Chainsaw Brigade
A spokesperson for CL&P said there were 17 utility crews in Seymour and Oxford clearing trees.
“The activity is clearing up the streets, to begin the restoration,” said CL&P’s Anna Alfaro.
Seymour First Selectman Paul Roy said Monday public works and CL&P crews were clearing trees. The technical repairs to the lines had yet to happen.
Eileen Krugel, spokesman for Ansonia, said at midday Monday a number of streets in the city were still closed, including part of Howard Avenue, Woodbridge Avenue, and French Street, because of wires down.
She said a representative of United Illuminating had attended the city’s emergency management meeting Sunday.
“UI is working on it,” she said. The main thing is the aftermath, with roads still closed. “We’re trying to clean up,” she said.
Millo, in Shelton, said several roads still had downed trees and debris Monday morning, but the city expected to have it mostly cleared by the end of the day.
“We have a full contingency of Public Works department and parks and rec crews working,” he said.
Who Gets Fixed First?
As of Monday evening, 570,000 CL&P customers were without power. About 200,000 had been brought back online since Irene hit.
Crews are working 16 hour days around the clock to make repairs, said Butler, CL&P president.
Neither the utility companies or Gov. Malloy would detail the order in which different parts of Connecticut are being brought back online.
Malloy said medical facilities are a top priority, as is public safety institutions. Sewage treatment plants have been added as a top priority, the governor said.
Next up — areas of the state where the largest amount of people can be brought back online.
“It’s quite clear that the no. 1 issue here is power. We understand it. We’re hearing it,” Malloy said.
Some 2,000 utility poles across the state were damaged during Irene’s visit, Malloy said. An estimated 1,000 roads were hit by downed trees or wires.
Utility companies said it’s the most damage they’ve seen since Hurricane Gloria in 1985.
Note: This story was generated through discussions on the Valley Indy’s Facebook page.
