Community Corner

Patch's Poll: Is CL&P At Fault For These Massive Outages?

As of Sunday night, more than 800,000 in Conn. still without power

CL&P said Sunday night more than 831,000 customers were still without power.

In a press releases, the company said "the unusually wet, heavy snow on trees still full with leaves – creating tree weights twice the normal levels – created historic damage to the electrical system, particularly in the northwest and north central portions of the state."

"Making good on a pledge following Tropical Storm Irene, within 12-14 hours after the end of the storm, CL&P has at least one crew assigned to the vast majority of affected towns, with a primary focus of coordinating with the town to address emergency situations and facilitate the reopening of roads by municipalities.  In addition, every town that has requested a town liaison has one now."

"At present, CL&P crews are working with municipalities to clear blocked roads and identify problems areas.  There are currently more than 300 crews working (189 line and 114 tree crews) and 600 additional crews are committed to join the effort.  The company continues to request additional assistance, but with neighboring utility crews committed to their own restoration efforts the search is being expanded to unaffected regions of the country."

"Damage from the storm was far more extensive than forecasted.  The Connecticut Department of Transportation estimates that tree damage is five times greater than Irene.  Peak outages were about 831,000 throughout the electrical system.  As of 8:45 p.m., service has been restored to more than 110,000 customers."

“We are encouraging customers to be prepared for the worst case, which would be outages lasting more than one week in some of the areas,” Butler said.  “As we get through our damage assessments, we will be able to provide more specific restoration information for our customers.  While we expect most affected customers will be restored in less time, we are encouraging patience as we work as quickly and as safely as possible to restore power.”

To report outages or check the status of an outage, visit cl-p.com or call 800-286-2000.  Our automated phone and online systems can rapidly process your report and help us speed restoration efforts.  For helpful tips and news updates, go to our website at cl-p.com, follow us on Twitter at CTLightandPower and like us at Facebook.com/CTLightandPower.  You can also get updates on outages in your town by texting “outage” and your zip code to 24612 (texting fees may apply).


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