‘It’s a pretty big mess out there’
Danbury area cleans up after violent storm leaves thousands without power
DANBURY — Crews were busy cleaning up the streets Wednesday morning following an overnight storm that left thousands without power in the Danbury area.
“It’s a pretty big mess out there,” Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said.
Danbury had a road closure that has since been cleared and city crews were removing the leaves out of the catch basin. The city peaked at about 900 power outages, according to Eversource. While many spent the morning without electricity, power was largely restored by late Wednesday afternoon.
“They’re working pretty hard out there,” Boughton said of the Eversource crews.
Bethel was hit the worst in the Danbury area and had nearly 1,000 outages — which is more than 10 percent of the town — as of around 10:15 a.m. Wednesday. Those outages were nearly all restored by early Wednesday evening.
Parts of downtown and sections in the eastern side of town were affected, First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said. He was not aware of any road closures.
The town’s Eversource liaison has not provided a restoration estimate, which is not unusual at this point after a storm, he said.
“It is relatively normal, but that is a concern because last night’s wind storm was not that big of a deal,” Knickerbocker said. “It really wasn’t.”
A line of showers with gusty winds was picked up on radar headed for Connecticut around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday A statement from the National Weather Service indicated the storms would hit Fairfield County and northwestern New Haven County.
Around 6:50 a.m. Wednesday, Eversource Energy and United Illuminating were reporting a combined 25,036 customers without power after the storms hit.
Those outages included 740 in Newtown, 772 in Ridgefield, 289 in New Milford and 218 in Southbury. Other Danbury area towns reported outages in the double digits.
Most of these were restored hours later with only 29 in New Milford, 82 in Newtown, 366 in Ridgefield and 36 in Southbury around 4:30 p.m.
“I think everything that was going to come down, came down in the last storm so we were able to weather this one,” Boughton said, referring to Tropical Storm Isaias. “In general, we fared pretty well.”
Boughton said he awoke to the strong winds around 1 a.m. He said the rain wasn’t a concern because the ground was so dry it soaked it up. The bigger concern was the stronger winds, which he said made the storm a little above average than what Danbury usually sees.
He said the area was spared from large outages in recent years, which makes this year’s overall number of storms that left people without power seem worse by comparison. He said it’s about average though when com
pared over a longer time.
There have been several storms that knocked out power to the Danbury area this year. The worst was Tropical Storm Isaias that left thousands without power for days in August, sparking an outcry against power companies’ responses, especially Eversource.
Boughton said Eversource’s response on Wednesday was better than Isaias.
“I think they’re paying atten
tion,” he said.
Statewide, 1,972 customers were without power Wednesday evening.
“The combination of heavy rain saturating the ground and high winds that hit the state caused trees already weakened by the prolonged drought to come down, taking power lines with them and leaving thousands of customers without power especially in the eastern and western parts of the state,” said
Eversource President of Regional Electric Operations Craig Hallstrom.
He said the crews were working as fast as possible to restore power.
“We realize after the recent storms in Connecticut, the last thing anyone wants is to be without power, especially with many customers still working and learning from home during this unprecedented time, and we will work non-stop until every cus
tomer is back on line,” he said.
Knickerbocker said the state and utility companies should have started hardening the infrastructure years ago.
“To have just a little windstorm cause this much outages is really unacceptable,” Knickerbocker said. “There needs to be some big changes in how our utilities operate in the state.”