Storm knocked out power to more than 100,000 customers Friday morning
(WFSB) – Tens of thousands of customers lost power as storms brought high winds and heavy rain across the state.
As of 4pm Friday, over 60,000 Eversource customers were still without power.
Eversource Connecticut President Steve Sullivan said of the effort to restore power:
Eversource Connecticut President Steve Sullivan provided an update on the outage on Friday afternoon.
Eversource officials said power was restored to more than 80,000 customers by Friday afternoon.
On Friday, Eversource reported that more than 103,000 customers lost power at some point during the morning.
Heavy rains and strong winds have caused extensive damage across the prefecture.
The hardest-hit area was Simsbury.
Several trees have fallen on Yajiri Road and power has been cut off to nearby houses.
One tree has fallen and is sitting on top of a power line.
Lower temperatures and no power means no heat.
Roy Tourtellotte said he lost electricity.
“Great flash. There was thunder this morning, so I don’t know if there was thunder,” Roy said.
Roy, like many of his neighbors, has a generator.
He knows that this part of the state has a lot of big trees, and when big storms come, the trees lose their strength.
“When a storm like this comes, we are affected. I know there are members.
“Since midnight last night, we have recovered over 80,000 customers. We have also been able to remove 150 blocked roads since last night. We will continue to work on those roads and prioritize them with the town.” Mr Sullivan said.
The question many people are asking is when will the power return?
“It’s hard not knowing how long a power outage will last,” says Roy. “We got gas yesterday and actually watched the news on Channel 3 telling everyone to get ready.”
Progress has been made in Simsbury. Only his 15% of town had a power outage this afternoon.
Channel 3 spoke with Eversource’s Mitch Gross early Friday morning.
Eversource’s Mitch Gross talks about what the company is doing in response to Friday’s storm.
“In addition to our crew, hundreds of crew members were brought in from all over the country and Canada,” Gross said. “It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation.”
Gross confirmed reports that the storm had knocked down trees and power lines across the state.
“We are responding as best we can,” he said. “As this storm progresses, we get out of here faster and the winds lessen, the crew can really start working to get these customers back.”
United Illumination reported more than 4,000 blackouts at one point in the morning, mostly in Woodbridge and Milford.Down to over 600 at 11:30am
Channel 3 also spoke with Chuck Eves, UI’s Vice President of Electricity Operations, this morning.
United Illuminating’s Chuck Eves talks about what the crew has been coping with during Friday’s storm.
“What makes this storm different from others is that it’s close to a holiday,” Eves said. “We understand the impact this will have on our customers.”
He said crew members will work until all customers are back up and running.
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