The forecasted 40 mile per hour winds are a weather déjà vu for Ledyard residents, many who were the last in the state to have their power restored after an October windstorm that caused 300,000 outages.
"I’ll come out here once in a while and I’ll open it up and I’ll check the oil down inside," Bill Pinckney said.
The outlook on Overlook Road is much like Bill Pinckney’s.
"It’s worse this time because if we have the same type of thing, people don’t have heat," Pinckney said.
"The house next door, there was a big tree that fell down and took down the power lines with it, and it was several days before they got their power lines cleared up so they could open the road. And my power was off for five days," Pinckney said.
"We have all of our available line workers tree crews and support staff in position ready to go and will be available to respond to any emergencies or outages," Tricia Modifica of Eversource said.
Modifica said hundreds of crews are already in place across the state the company urging customers to call about outages as they occur.
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"We do need them to call in and report the outage don't assume that we just know, that your neighbor reported it so that you're covered," Modifica said.
The message comes just months after Eversource’s new outage report program overloaded in October which led to a delay in power restoration in some areas.
"I know that it has been tested to make sure that it is ready to go for a storm like we're expecting tomorrow," Modifica said.
"I believe that they understand that where we're coming from," Ledyard Mayor Fred Allyn said.
Allyn said the town has been in talks with Eversource since October’s nearly week-long outage and hoping the company’s system test runs will prove its ready for the next whip of wind.
"Their system was overwhelmed. They need to make sure it's robust enough to handle the responses that they're going to receive," Allyn said.
Pinckney said Overlook Road’s new power poles are the battle scars that prove the strength of the wind, and will be tested by the same powerful winds that took down their predecessors
"If a big tree comes down and takes the wires down, we’ll be in the same predicament," Pinckney said.
