Power Still Out in Eastern Connecticut

The number of people without power in the wake of Irene is down to about 170,000 on Friday morning and power companies say more help is on the way.

Connecticut Light & Power said most of the power should be restored by late Saturday and fully restored by Wednesday. CL&P puts the number of crews working to make that happen at 1,555, but that's little comfort to those who are still in the dark and desperate for power as they go on day six of not having any.

As of Friday morning, 99 percent of Sterling is without power, 94 percent of Eastford, 77 percent of Pomfret, Lyme and Voluntown and 76 percent of North Stonington.
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Some people head into another day in the dark with a sense of humor.

"What would I be angry about? I'm from New England. You have to expect this once in a while," Arn Weiss, of Salem, said.

For others, especially elected officials, there is a sense of frustration.

"I don't know what plan CL&P is using but they're not using the right plan for us," Kevin Lyden, Salem’s First Selectman, said:

Jeffrey Butler, president and COO of CL&P, acknowledged on Thursday that communication with cities and towns has been ineffective and said more crews continue to come to Connecticut each day.

"As we continue to move forward, what we are finding is the states that were less impacted than Connecticut are making available crews, and as they release their crews we continue to pull crews in," Butler said.

But patience is running thin as people keep waiting. WILI updates its radio listeners on the power progress every 30 minutes, but that might not last long. They have a generator, but it's quickly reaching its limit.

"These generators really aren't supposed to last more than one or two days. We're going on day five right now. We have an estimated time of next Tuesday," Adam Rivers, of WILI, said.

If your neighbors have power restored but you don't, please report your outage, If you are a CL&P customer, call 800-286-2000 or go online at cl-p.com.

 

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