Strong winds leave more than 3,000 in Conn. without power

More than 3,000 customers were without power Friday night as strong winds buffeted the state.

Outages have been reported around Connecticut, many of them in Litchfield County and the western part of the state.

The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for all of Connecticut along with New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and much of New York. Westerly winds of 20 to 30 mph are expected to continue until midnight, with gusts expected to hit 45 mph.

“Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result,” the agency advised.

As of just before 7 p.m., Eversource reported 2,244 outages.. That total rose to 3,030 by 7:45 p.m.

In New Milford, 893 customers were without power, or about 6.4 percent of Eversource’s total customers in the Litchfield County town.

Hebron, in Tolland County reported 546, close to 14 percent of Eversource’s customers there. Windsor, in Hartford County, reported 464 customers out of power.

Al Lara, an Eversource spokesman, said the winds are part of a weather system that passed over Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.

“For much of the day half the state’s been taking on more severe weather,” Lara said, but now the winds are beginning to “spread to the rest of the state” as well.

He said the utility company had anticipated the storm and has a full complement of crews out, with additional line workers expected from Canada. They will also be supplemented by local contracted tree crews.

Lara said the company expects more outages as the winds spread to the rest of the state, but hope the strongest gusts will die down as temperatures drop overnight.

In addition to Eversource, United Illuminating is reporting additional outages in some of the communities it serves along the coast.

A dozen outages have been reported across Stratford, Bridgeport, Trumbull, Fairfield and Easton, according to the utility’s outage map.

Those outages are affecting 2,742 customers, according to UI. Later that evening, the outages dropped to 11 affecting 131 customers.