Nor’easter could cause over 125,000 power outages in state
As a powerful winter nor’easter pushes into Connecticut Monday night, an Eversource official said crews are preparing for more than 125,000 outages.
The company is prepared to declare a Level 4 emergency response plan at 6 p.m., according to Steve Sullivan, Eversource’s president of Connecticut electric operations. That means the storm has the potential to leave 125,000 in the dark and would involve a multi-day restoration effort.
“The last half-dozen storms that have come in have tended to come with a front — you got a big vicious blast of wind within a two- to four-hour time period where probably 80 percent of our outages occurred,” Sullivan said during a news briefing in Hartford Monday morning.
But he said this storm may be different.
“It’s calling for widespread winds across the entire state,” that could last through Wednesday, Sullivan said.
So during this storm, the number of outages may ramp up and look like they’re not being restored. “That’s not the case,” Sullivan said “As fast as we’re restoring them, in this particular storm, there is the potential that other areas, other customers will be coming out — as we complete one job, we move the crew right on to the next job.”
United Illuminating has not yet released outage predictions for its customers in the greater Bridgeport and New Haven areas.
The storm is expected to start as rain on Monday before transitioning to snow sometime after midnight.
That mix of heavy, wet snow combined with gusty winds could snap tree lines and bring down power lines, according to the National Weather Service. The greatest risk of “snow load,” where there will be 6 inches or more of heavy wet snow, is concentrated in the state’s northwest, where there’s the possibility of “scattered to numerous” downed tree limbs and utility wires, the weather service said.
Eversource officials said “hundreds” of crews have been called in from outside of the state as of Monday morning. He said the company is “prepositioning” line and tree crews throughout Connecticut in preparation for the storm.
“We really encourage customers to prepare today. This is going to be a big storm,” Sullivan said. He urged residents to fully charge their cellphones and laptops.
He also warned people to stay away from downed wires.