Eversource restores electricity to 170,000-plus customers; crews work around-the clock to bring power back as bitter cold grips CT after storm
More than 36,000 Connecticut residents woke up without electricity Saturday morning after powerful wind, rain and freezing temperatures slammed the state.
As of 3 p.m. on Saturday, 18,000 Eversource customers and 32 United Illuminating Company customers had no power after the utilities reported more than 36,000 customer outages at 9 a.m.
Eversource spokesperson Mitch Gross said that at the height of the storm, more than 109,000 customers were without power. Gross said that since Friday, the company restored electricity to approximately 180,000 customers. The numbers vary because new outages can occur following separate restorations.
According to Eversource’s estimated restoration times, Connecticut residents could have expected power to return by 6 p.m. on Saturday or as late as 8 a.m. on Sunday.
Gross said that Eversource continues to bring in additional utility line and tree crews to the state, many have come from across the U.S. and Canada.
“We’re pushing as quickly as we can to get these remaining customers on. We know it’s a very tough situation. We know people are cold, that they want to celebrate their holidays,” Gross said. “Our crews have been out all night in this cold, and they’ll be out all day as well.”
In a statement Saturday morning, Eversource Connecticut President Steve Sullivan said that in this final phase of restoration, outage numbers may linger.
“We’re at the point of the restoration where the repairs made at one location may only bring back a dozen customers, so the outage numbers won’t be dropping as quickly as they did earlier in the restoration,” he said.
“Our massive team — in the field and behind the scenes — is fully committed to getting power restored to the remaining customers affected by this storm,” he said. “I personally want to thank the men and women working who gave up their holiday time off with their families to work on this restoration. They’ve done a tremendous job.”
On Saturday morning, the Connecticut Department of Transportation reported 13 current road closures across the state. DOT spokesperson Josh Morgan said that the department recorded more than 50 closures from downed trees, powerlines and flooding over the course of the storm.
Morgan said it is hard to predict when the closed roads will reopen.
“If there’s trees wrapped up in power lines, we’re at the mercy of the utility companies to make sure that the lines aren’t energized before we can remove the trees or remove the debris,” Morgan said. “Our best advice to people, if they’re going to be out traveling this weekend, is to check online before they head out, whether it’s on ctroads.org if they’re going to be driving, or ctrail.com or cttransit.com if they’re going to be using train or bus service this weekend.
Gov. Ned Lamont Saturday urged urging municipalities with residents experiencing power outages to continue providing warming centers and shelters as needed.
Lamont’s statement noted: “As of noon on Saturday, the utility companies are reporting that residents in 93 towns and cities in Connecticut are experiencing outages. A total of 39 of them have an estimated time of power restoration of 6:00 p.m. on Saturday; 38 have an estimated time of power restoration of midnight Saturday night; and 16 have an estimated time of power restoration for 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.”
Between the start of Friday and 8 a.m. on Saturday, the Connecticut State Police said that they had investigated 119 accidents, but a representative from the CSP said that the agency can not separate storm-related accidents from non-storm-related crashes.
Gary Lessor, the chief meteorologist of the Western Connecticut State University Weather Center, said that the coastal flooding that affected much of the state’s shoreline Friday has receded, and skies will remain clear and sunny for the rest of the weekend.
“There will be no travel problems in the state. You just go to deal with the cold and the uncomfortable wind chill,” Lessor said.
Lessor said that southwest wind gusts will reach up to 20 miles per hour inland and up to 35 miles per hour along the shore. Dew points and wind chill will remain below zero as the air temperature rises only to the teens.
“This, by far, has been the coldest morning of the winter season ... there was nowhere in the state that escaped the cold,” Lessor said. “Temperatures throughout the state [Saturday morning] are in the single digits above zero.”
Overnight, we drop back into the single digits and lower teens statewide [with] wind chill factors tonight at zero to 10 below. We get sunshine again for Christmas Day.”
Lessor said that as the week progresses, temperatures in Connecticut will become more moderate and dry, starting off in the 30s on Monday and reaching close to 50 on Friday.
“Thankfully we don’t have the duration of the cold that the Rockies and planes have been dealing with,” Lessor said. “There are places out in Wyoming that were 47 degrees below zero. So, we’re just getting a piece of the cold. We’re not getting the core of the cold.”
Alison Cross can be reached at across@courant.com.