Utility crews from across country spend Christmas Eve restoring CT’s power after storm. ‘You’re turning people’s heat back on.’
On Christmas Eve in Connecticut, 1,100 Eversource crew members worked around the clock to restore electricity to thousands of residents left without lights or heat in the aftermath of Friday’s storm.
Many of these men and women — itinerant contractors who hail from across the U.S. and Canada — won’t spend the holiday surrounded by loved ones this year.
In Southbury on Saturday, a multi-state team of linemen from Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida, even Alaska, worked in the single-digit chill after fallen trees tore down powerlines, compromised utility poles and blew-out transformers on Old Field Road.
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.
Like many of his crew members, Tanner Collins said this Christmas Eve, he would be “taking a shower and going to bed.”
Collins, who is in his second full year as a lineman, came to the northeast with his dad two weeks ago to restore utilities cut by inclement weather, leaving his mom and fiancé back home in Bean Station, Tennessee. It is the second time that work has kept him away for the holidays.
Collins admitted that he would rather be warm, at home, spending Christmas with his family, but feeling the appreciation from neighbors who check in on the team’s progress and offer to buy the crew coffee, makes the time away meaningful.
“You’re turning people’s heat back on, making their lives a whole lot easier, and keeping them warm,” he said. “Whenever there’s actually something behind it as far as people’s livelihood and things like that, you get that little extra sense of accomplishment.”
And, as a third-generation lineman, Brandon Cartwright’s family is no stranger to missed holidays and celebrations, but it doesn’t make the disappointment any easier.
Cartwright said two of his last four Christmases have been spent away at work, and he has not seen his family in two weeks.
After restoring powerlines in Buffalo last week, Cartwright thought he would make it back home to South Florida for the holidays, but the weather had other plans. He said he’ll watch his 5- and 8-year-old children open presents over Facetime on Christmas morning.
“A couple years ago we were in the 80-degree, 90-degree heat in the Virgin Islands. Now we’re up here in single digits. You definitely forget that it’s Christmas. Um, it doesn’t feel like Christmas [and] doesn’t feel like Christmas Eve,” Cartwright said. “It’s hard sometimes, especially with the little kids, because you won’t ever get that time back. But if you take pride in this trade and what you do, then this is more important.”
That sense of pride in the profession is something Cartwright holds dear. As one of 16 linemen in his family, responsibility is a deeply ingrained value.
“We all expect what’s coming. We all know that we’re going to probably be away from our families,” Cartwright said.
“We might make plans at home, but then, when the power company calls, we have a job to do. So we go out and do it. We put everything aside in this trade,” he said. “There is no eraser on your pencil. You have to make sure that you’re cut in and your head’s on straight. So you really can’t think about those feelings at home, you have a job to do. And that’s what it boils down to, and that’s the pride you take in.”
Alison Cross can be reached at across@courant.com.
