The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
IN THE EYE OF THE STORM
A behind-the-scenes look at Isaias impact in Conn.
Tropical Storm Isaias ripped through the state, downing trees and power
lines and even whipping up a tornado in one southern Connecticut town. About 1 million lost power — some for more than a week — and businesses, already struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, were dealt another blow. Today, Hearst Connecticut Media analyzes the preparation for the storm and its aftermath. For some, the prolonged outages were an inconvenience coping with hot days without air conditioning, internet and finding alternatives for working from home. But for others, it posed serious health risks for the elderly, disabled and those who depend on refrigerated medication. Gov. Ned Lamont’s office and local elected leaders also provide their perspective — and frustration — with how the outages were handled and what needs to happen next time.
Tropical Storm Isaias passes through West Haven on Aug. 4.
It’s been nearly three weeks since Tropical Storm Isaias whipped through the state, bringing down branches, trees, power lines and expectations of effective cooperation between utility companies and public officials.
As outage numbers reached about 1 million statewide, it wasn’t long before finger-pointing began about who was to blame as customers dealt without power for hours, days, and, for some, more than a week.
The recriminations won’t end anytime soon. But a behind-the-scenes look at how the storm and recovery unfolded for homeowners, business people and public officials offers lessons about what went wrong and what could be done better the next time a big storm batters the state.
The storm preparations began on July 26 with Eversource tracking Hurricane Isaias, which was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it made landfall in Connecticut.
Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said his town was notified of the brewing tropical storm five days before Isaias pummeled the region. Because the town was in the middle of stripping and resurfacing roads, the public works department adjusted its schedule to ensure the roads would be covered when the storm arrived.
“The last thing you want to have when a hurricane’s coming is an exposed road,” Knickerbocker said, because “the road will quite literally be washed away.”
The town fire department began preparing with pump-out work in the event of flooding, and inspected generators residents had lent in case power went out it.
In Westport, First Selectman Jim Marpe said the town became aware of the storm’s potential about a week before Isaias swept through his community with force, producing a minor tornado that tore the roof off a home in the Saugatuck Shores neighborhood.
One day before the storm, Eversource made sure liaisons assigned to each municipality coordinated the efforts of local public works crews and utility linemen, Knickerbocker said.
During Irene and Sandy, a liaison with the power company slept on a cot in town hall while recovery options were underway. In the aftermath of Isaias, the communication was more complicated with the liaison working
Marpe
remotely while also managing other communities, Knickerbocker said.
Other municipalities were facing their own challenges. Westport’s normal Eversource liaison retired just days before the storm, leaving the town with a newcomer who was not familiar with the community, Marpe said.
Isaias bears down
Five days before the storm hit Connecticut, United Illuminating sent a notice to customers, warning them of the start of hurricane season, including Isaias.
According to a press release, UI began preparing its crews and equipment on July 31, as well as soliciting contractors to provide additional help.
In an Aug. 3 filing with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, UI predicted a Level 3 event, meaning the company expected Isaias to knock out power to 30 to 50 percent of its customers. The company’s prediction turned out to be on target with 37 percent of customers losing power at the peak of the outages, a UI spokesman said.
Eversource anticipated a smaller, Level 4 event, predicting 10 percent to 29 percent of customers — or 130,000 to 380,000 — would be affected. It ultimately proved to be a drastic underestimate.
As the utilities tried to gauge the storm’s strength, emails provided to Hearst Connecticut Media show Gov. Ned Lamont’s office was first notified of Isaias’ path of potential destruction at noon July 31.
Douglas Glowacki, emergency management program specialist for the state, sent an email with “high importance” to Paul Mounds, Lamont’s chief of staff. In the July 31 email, Glowacki warned the governor’s office of the
Sandbags provide protection against heavy surf in Fairfield on Aug. 4. storm’s potential: 40 to 60 mph winds and 4 to 6 inches of rain were coming this way, he wrote.
With the storm looming, Eversource on Aug. 1 contracted to bring 120 crews from Canada to supplement its own workers who were already engaged in storm prep efforts in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Craig Hallstrom, regional president of electric operations for Eversource, said crews from the south were not available.
“Mutual aid crews were holding pending the advancing storm,” Hallstrom wrote in a narrative he prepared for Hearst Connecticut Media, explaining Eversource’s preparation and response
Lamont
to the storm.
With the storm just two days away, Glowacki sent the governor’s office an update the morning of Aug. 2.
Isaias had been downgraded to a tropical storm, he informed top state officials that included Mounds, Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner James Rovella, the state’s Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe and Lamont’s communications director Max Reiss.
“All major models are now in very good agreement on the track and timing of T.S. Isaias,” Glowacki wrote.
Emergency prep
Around 11 a.m. Aug. 2, White House aide Nic Pottebaum emailed Mounds, inquiring whether there were unmet federal needs in the state’s response arsenal.
Mounds, who worked for U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal during the 2011 and 2012 storms that knocked out power and led to some regulatory reforms of the state’s power companies, knew tree-covered Connecticut could be in trouble. Mounds said he began to worry about strong winds leading to long-term outages.
He called an emergency preparation meeting with Geballe, the rest of Lamont’s central office staff, as well as the state Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security on Aug. 2.
One day before the storm, Eversource issued a warning to customers about the potential impact of Isaias — and that outages could last longer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Working under the challenging conditions related to the pandemic, our crews are positioned around the state and ready to respond to any damage or outages caused by Tropical Storm Isaias,” Eversource Vice President of
A crew from O’Connell Electric in Buffalo, N.Y., restores power on Tavern Rock Road in Stratford on Aug. 9.
Electric Operations Mike Hayhurst said. “Our team will work around-the-clock to restore power as quickly and safely as possible — yet some restorations may take longer as we work to ensure the safety of our employees and customers.”
In Danbury, Hunter Road resident Ellen Blasi said she prepared for the storm by stocking up on water and nonperishable food.
“I did go and get paper plates and stuff … I didn’t expect to be out of power for eight days," she said.
In Hartford, the governor’s staff and state officials discussed the state’s preparedness and plans for a worst-case scenario. That day, members of Lamont’s legal team drafted a Civil Preparedness Emergency Declaration, a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency asking for a presidential emergency declaration, and a never-used travel ban for roadways during the storm.
‘Unprecedented’ damage
Hours before the storm on Aug. 4, Eversource used forecasts and prediction models to project between 3,000 and 6,000 damage locations, Hallstrom said.
At noon, UI issued one final warning to customers: Tropical Storm Isaias was about to arrive.
The storm hit Connecticut in the early afternoon hours, quickly knocking out power in all 17 municipalities in UI’s territory. In total, the company said the storm resulted in 1,700 outage-causing events, 150 broken poles and more than 1,000 downed wires. Eversource’s territory was getting pounded. Isaias moved faster than expected but with less rain. Connecticut lay on the windward side as the storm passed just to the west.
“Eversource was fully prepared for a major outage event,” Hallstrom said. “However, by 6 p.m., our system had already incurred approximately 5,300 damage locations.
“This scale of damage in such a short time period was unprecedented and substantially beyond the scale indicated by weather forecasts,” he said.
As the storm lashed Westport, a waterspout formed near Compo Beach around 1:40 p.m. After the winds died down, 97 percent of Eversource customers in Westport were left without power.
Shortly before the tornado blew through Westport, Blasi said she heard an enormous crash from the basement of her Danbury home, where she had sought shelter after receiving a tornado warning.
When she emerged, she and her neighbors found a large oak tree leaning into a cracked utility pole laced with utility wires — completely sealing off the road to vehicular traffic.
“I looked at the street and I was like, ‘oh (expletive),’” she said. “I was expecting to be out for a few days. But I also felt like because this street was completely cut off, it would be sooner rather than later.”
Standing in the state’s Emergency Operations Center, Lamont addressed the public around 4 p.m. as the storm continued to pound the state.
After the nine-minute briefing, Lamont and his team hunkered down for the evening. A