CL&P: Only Four Customers in New Canaan Without Power

[UPDATE] 7:40 p.m. According to the CL&P outage map, there are now only four customers in New Canaan without power.

[UPDATE] 7:20 p.m. According to the CL&P outage map, the number of New Canaan customers without power is back up to 326. 

[UPDATE] 6:21 p.m. The mandatory evacuation of Elm Street has been lifted, according to an email alert sent by the Office of Emergency Mangement, as the "hazardous conditions have been addressed." According to Mike Handler, CL&P crews are still working and parking on Elm Street will be limited to the north side of the street. "If all goes as planned we anticipate power restoration to the downtown area by 8 pm this evening," he wrote.

CL&P is also working on restoring power to the Father Peter’s Lane area estimated restoration time is not available. The cooling center at Lapham Community Center has been closed and the EOC has been moved to monitoring status.

[UPDATE] 5:51 p.m. The Office of Emergency Management posted the following on its Facebook page: "The Health Dept has been in contact with the local restaurants. They were told to have their staff on standby. The hope is they can open by 8 pm tonight. You can contact the restaurant of your choice in the next hour or two to check on their status."

[UPDATE] 5:10 p.m. Sgt. Ogrinc told Patch that, according to CL&P reps, the explosion at the Lakeview Ave. substation "caused a strain on the system" that resulted in smoke coming out of the manholes on Elm Street. "They don't even believe that there was a fire," she said.

[UPDATE] 4:15 p.m. CL&P reported the following number of customers are still without power; 104 customers on Elm St, 100 customers on Main St, 37 customers on Forest St, 17 customers on South Ave and 19 on Father Peters Ln. CL&P crews are working throughout town to restor power to those location.

[UPDATE] 4:10 p.m. According to Sgt. Carol Ogrinc, residents reported to police seeing smoke coming from manholes around 1 p.m. Police responded with fire fighters and the Community Emergency Respose Team. Ogrinc said CL&P officials on site determined there was smoke coming out of the manholes, which cause outages in the immediate area.

According to Ogrinc, CL&P then shut off power to thousands of homes as a safety precaution and, once the issue was isolated, CL&P was able to restore power to the majority of the town again.

Ogrinc said that CL&P is still on the scene working on repairs to restore power to the 292 residences without power, however progress could be slowed down by heavy rain, lightning and/or heavy winds. 

[UPDATE] 3:50 p.m. According to CL&P outage map, the number of New Canaan customers without power has gone down to 293.

[UPDATE] 3:38 p.m. According to New Canaan Fire Dept., the undergound electrical fire has been put out. CL&P is currently on the scene on Elm Street working to restore power. No estimates yet as to when power will be back up for everyone. 

[UPDATE] 3:23 p.m. Mandatory evacuation on Elm Street for all residents due to underground electrical fire from South Avenue to Park Street. 

[UPDATE] 3:15 p.m. Residents in town without power:

Three-year New Canaan resident Mike Cudzil was at the with his two sons, ages 5 and 3, to escape the heat. They lost power roughly 20 minutes before heading to the library. Cudzil said he was going to try to get some ice cream for the kids and he rented the movie "Space Jam" for the kids to watch.  

Margaret and Jim Wenzel, owners of , were at their store with the power out. Their power had been out for approximately 90 minutes.

“We also live in town and we’re hoping we have power at the house, but we’re not sure,” said Margaret. “But we’re praying about it and we have to believe that the town is going to protect our [investment] (the store has two freezers without power filled with frozen health food).”

“Some information would be nice,” said Jim, “This is just bad for business.”

[UPDATE] 3:02 p.m. The fantastic volunteers at the New Canaan Office of Emergency Management are preparing to issue a statement on outages. Stand by.

[UPDATE] 2:48 p.m. CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross told Patch that an underground cable on Main Street downtown caused widespread outages shortly before 12 p.m.

"We have crews working on it," Gross said. "We do not have an estimate of when everybody will be back. We've had to cut power through additoinal circuits for safety reasons while crews make preparations."

[UPDATE] 2:39 Power just came back on at . It had been without power. Library officials are urging residents to phone first (203) 594-5000 before arriving there.

[UPDATE] 2:35 First Selectman Robert Mallozzi: 

"CL&P is on the scene evaluating the situation. They're going to try to run a bypass operation so they can restore power to as many people as posible while fixing the outage situation on Elm Street.

"Emergency operations wil be opening up a cooling station at a building that we determine is accessible, potentially the community center or the YMCA, but that’s not official yet. We're still working out the logistics," said Mallozzi. 

Mallozzi also stated that Elm Street is closed bewteen South Avenue and Park Street street and he believes businesses will be closing down.  

[UPDATE] 2:26 p.m. CL&P reportedly estimates that power will be restored around 8 p.m.

Officials at the have confirmed that the facility is serving as a cooling center.

[UPDATE] 2:15 p.m. CL&P reports 4,397 New Canaan customers without power. As temperatures surge today, town officials are setting up cooling stations for residents. Cooling station locations will be announced as town hall releases that information. 

[UPDATE] 1:59 p.m. CL&P will be de-energizing circuits on Locust Ave. and Elm St, according to emergency responders. After that, power can be restored to much of the town. Over 50 percent of town residents served by CL&P are currently affected.

[UPDATE] 1 p.m. According to CL&P dispatch, numerous calls of low voltage and part power from Main Street, Elm Street, Cherry Street and Burtis Avenue are comig. CL&P's online outage map indicates 11 affected New Canaan customers without power. 

[UPDATE] 12:50 p.m. CL&P is responding to an outage at the Lakeview Ave. sub-station.

Original Article - 12:48 p.m.

There are reports of multiple explosions at the substation on Lakeview Avenue.

CL&P has not yet updated their outage map to indicated any power outages. 

Stay Patched in for updates as they become available.