Thousands of customers are now approaching day eight with no power, after Tropical Storm Isaias ripped through Connecticut last week.
Eversource officials spoke with NBC Connecticut at a press conference Monday afternoon. They said that they understand the frustration and said that the company has a sense of urgency.
Eversource says that they will have 99 percent of their customers restored by Tuesday night.
"Patience left a couple of days ago," said Amy Souza-Gagnon. "Yea, there is no patience anymore and there should not be. To have a live wire in your yard for seven days, it is unacceptable.”
Souza-Gagnon and her husband live in Gales Ferry. When the storm swept through last week, the fierce winds knocked over a tree in their front yard. The tree brought power lines down as well. The tree was cleaned up Sunday night, but the wire remained.
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By Saturday, after four days in the dark and in the heat, Souza-Gagnon decided to make a sign marking how many days she has been without power. She sat at the end of her driveway Saturday, Sunday and Monday, hoping to get the attention of Eversource crews.
“At some point you just can’t sit in your house anymore in the dark waiting for them to come. I just needed to do something. So I spent the week sitting out here. waving at cars," said Souza-Gagnon.
She said that a lot of people honked their horns as they drove by and offered to help. While she did not grab the attention of Eversource crews with her sign, she said she did file multiple reports with the power company to complain about the wire.
After buying a new generator and having several sleepless, hot nights, power was restored to the Gagnon's late Monday.
Meanwhile in Middletown, Ellen Steinberg and her husband are still without power.
“Trying to keep my head above water," said Steinberg.
Steinberg said that the outage has been especially difficult for her and her husband. He is battling cancer and she has to keep his medicine cold.
For the first days with no electricity, Steinberg was depending on her neighbors to help with coolers and access to a refrigerator. By Monday a relative was able to lend Steinberg a generator.
“It is 86 degrees in my house and I have a refrigerator now, but he can’t be moved because he is immunosuppressed. There is a pandemic and they are saying oh you can go to the cooling center at the high school. That does not really do us a lot of good," explained Steinberg.
Now, entering day eight with no power, Steinberg says she just wants one thing: "to have Eversource come and hook us up."
