Community Corner

Update: CL&P Crews in Town, Prediction for Restoration Still Seven Days

Town working to open closed roads. Residents asked to stay away from downed power lines.

Update: 11:45 a.m.

Four CL&P crews are in New Canaan, beginning the long process of restoring power to the 81 percent of residents who remain without in town today.

Though he’s sticking to the estimate of seven days without power, Director of Emergency Operations Mike Handler said a combination of careful planning, responsiveness on the part of residents and luck conspired to create a less dire situation than could have happened.

Find out what's happening in New Canaanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“A lot of hard work went into preparation and notification,” he said. “There is a huge element of luck involved in what we do. We were very fortunate that there were no critical medical emergencies during the active phase of the storm and no structure fires. Let’s keep up our luck by not touching wires.”

Handler reminds residents that their risky behavior, such as ignoring barricades and touching any downed wire, puts emergency personnel at risk, if and when they respond.

Find out what's happening in New Canaanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Tree Warden Bruce Pauley brought three tree companies into town on Saturday. They staged behind Town Hall, so they’d be in town when it was time to begin clearing.

“They were out Sunday from 1:30 to 2, until it got ridiculous,” he said, referring to the strong winds that blew into town after the eye passed.

A steady stream of emergency officials and volunteers has been in and out of the EOC headquarters at the police department.

New Canaan resident Suzanne Conron said she took the day off from her job at UBS Stamford to help out. The electronic communications and surveillance analyst said she is working in the EOC as a communications specialist.

“It was difficult to get to work from my location in town, but I could walk right up here and volunteer,” Conron told Patch.

The town’s newly created Facebook page received 55,000 hits since it went live Friday, according to Town Council Chair Mark DeWaele.  Recent NCHS graduate Nick Howard created and is running the site.

Original Story

(Editor's Note: The following message was released by Mike Handler, the Director of Emergency Management on Monday morning.)

Good morning, this is a 10 a.m. update from the Emergency Operations Center. We currently have four line crews from CL&P paired up with our public works and tree crews. We are hopeful that we will have two additional line crews in town this afternoon. The following is our list of priorities: 

  1.  Mitigation of safety issues which involves downed live wires.
  2. Opening of critical roadways where we have residences that are currently inaccessible to emergency crews. This is making roads passable, not clearing them.
  3. Opening of major road arteries. Again, making at least one lane passable.
  4. Restoration of power.

I cannot stress enough the importance of obeying all road closures. Do not remove emergency tape or move barricades.  Our preliminary estimate of seven days of widespread power outage still stands.  Remember this is a based on preliminary assessments and subject to change.  We will share real-time updates of our progress via outcalls, media outlets and our Facebook page.  If you have any questions or concerns please call the Emergency Operations Center at 203-594-4100 or post on Facebook.  Thank you again for your patience.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here