Miller said Eversource, the utility company, published the restoration estimate on its website Thursday.
“I think that’s probably a number we can use realistically. That’s their hope for having 100 percent back,” Miller told The Valley Indy.
Ethan Fry Photo
A downed tree near the Seymour Police Department.
Click play to watch an interview with Miller recorded at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Eversource had made substantial progress in Seymour by 8 p.m. Thursday. The percentage of customers without power had dropped from 96 percent at 1 p.m. to 66 percent.
(Update: by 6 a.m. Friday 22 percent of Seymour was without power)
Nevertheless, the school district opted to cancel school Friday. Tuesday’s storm forced schools to close Wednesday and Thursday, too.
The following was a post on the Seymour Public Schools Facebook page:
Miller pointed out the damage to the electric distribution system was extraordinary, and that important equipment that feed the distribution system outside Seymour’s borders were also damaged.
“I don’t want people to think this is going to start happening en masse over the next couple of hours,” Miller said. “This is probably going to take 24 hours or so.”
The following message was sent out by the town Thursday at 7 p.m.:
This is First Selectman Kurt Miller with a storm update utilizing the Code Red system.
Currently, Seymour is at 65% of residents with power out.
Crews continue to work throughout town to repair downed lines but significant work remains to be done on substations and transmission equipment.
The middle school will be open until 9 PM tonight for charging and bathing and will be open from 5:45 AM to 9 AM tomorrow morning.
If you have had damage to the electrical service on your home, please contact a licensed electrician.
Eversource’s responsibility ends where the wire connects to your home.
Also, if you are operating a generator through an outlet, please make sure you turn off your main breaker when power is restored.
Otherwise, you risk injuring linesmen when they go to repair equipment. Thank you and be safe.”
Most roads were open to vehicles Thursday.
Miller said that about 4,000 of the roughly 7,600 Eversource customers without power had lost power because of transmission damage that happened outside Seymour, such as to a substation in Beacon Falls.
Seymour Middle School at 211 Mountain Ave. will be open Friday from 5:30 a.m. until 9 a.m. as a “charging/bathing” station.
Power returned Wednesday night to the South Main Street area. Downtown Seymour had power Thursday afternoon. Social media was full of posts from residents saying their power was back.
As annoying as the week has been in Seymour and Oxford, there were no reported injuries.
The same storm system Tuesday killed two people in the Danbury area during the storm. Late Wednesday the National Weather Service determined tornadoes touched down in Oxford and Beacon Falls.
Seymour neighbors both towns.
