Thousands of people in Connecticut remained without power and without heat a day after an ice storm brought down trees and power lines.
United Illuminating announced Monday it expects by midnight to restore power to virtually all of its customers that have been without heat since Sunday night.
A majority of the UI customers still waiting on Monday for the power to turn back on live in Hamden.
On Centerbrook Road, crews had to wait for the arrival of new utility poles before they could get to work.
Carol O’Connor said she lost her power around 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Inside her home, it was 54 degrees and dropping fast while the temperature outside felt below zero with the wind chill.
“I was kind of expecting it,” O’Connor said of the power outage, “because I knew there was ice in a lot of places so it wasn’t really surprising but the biggest problem was not knowing when it was going to come back.”
Monday morning O’Connor said discovered the source of the outage was around the corner from her home.
“But I’m lucky I was able to leave and I’ve just been driving around Hamden for three hours,” she said.
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Her neighbor Gary Scott can only go so far because he is a caregiver for his homebound 96-year-old mother.
“She’s actually done very well,” Scott said. “She’s in bed right now, staying in bed, staying warm, it's not easy, we’re just trying to make the best of it.”
Scott said he had to charge his phone in the car.
“So I could have contact with the outside world,” he explained. “There’s no power, there’s no heat, there’s no cooking.”
The new warming center at the church at 2927 Dixwell Ave. had extended hours Monday. A staff member told NBC Connecticut three people stopped Sunday night after losing their power in the ice storm.
“This place saves lives,” residential supervisor Nebrel Gray said. “It brings a person from off the street into a place where there’s warm, food, just a shelter to protect them from the cold and the freezing weather.”
According to Hamden Mayor Curt Leng, “the ice event ended up being more than anyone could have imagined.”
Hamden had a major clean-up after the powerful May 15 storms and tornado last year. Leng said this ice storm is to blame for more than 200 incidents of downed trees damaging power lines and blocking roads.
Town crews worked around the clock and United Illuminating brought in resources from out of state to help with the power restoration, Leng said. He is warning people to be mindful that frozen branches could still break off and come crashing down.
NBC Connecticut asked Leng if he’s satisfied with UI’s response.
“You know I am at this point,” he said Monday afternoon. “I think that there’s always an opportunity to coordinate in a better fashion but it’s is a challenge when you have a lot of different contractors coming from a lot of different states working with a lot of different people, there’s always room for improvement.”
Scott said he’s just hopeful UI meets the midnight goal of restoring service to the majority of customers.
“It would be really difficult to get her out of the house,” he said of his mom. “She has a walker, she has a transport wheelchair and then bundling here up, it’ll be better if the power comes on soon.”
