Westport residents who are stuck on one blocked street are growing impatient. They say they’re trapped by a home torn apart by a possible tornado, its roof wrapped in powerlines on the road.
“It is a safety issue if there is a fire, if there is an emergency there are people with young children, infants,” said Polly Litner who is blocked in. “There are elderly people. An ambulance can’t get here, a fire truck can’t get here. We are trapped, we are on our own, nobody seems to care.”
Nearly 20 homes are behind the debris on the dead-end road in Westport. They have been stuck since Tuesday when the possible tornado from Tropical Storm Isaias tore off the roof and second floor, landing on power lines.
“We’ll wait our turn for power. We’re not begging for power, we’re begging for access,” said a resident named Beverly who’s lived in the area for 17 years.
Westport Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director Robert Yost says there’s a process for opening the road.
“That requires a power company crew teaming up with our public works for what they call ‘make safe,’ where they verify the wires are dead and they can open up the roads,” said Yost.
But there are only two crews in town and Chief Yost says Gov. Ned Lamont has pushed Eversource to restore power. That changes the first task of checking out downed wires before public works can go in.
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”I just lost two crews that would have been doing ‘make safe’ are now doing restoration when I still have roads that I can’t get police cars and fire trucks down,” said Yost.
Westport has opened about 115 of nearly 300 roads closed in town. This one, with part of a home in the middle, is still on the list.
People are growing impatient. After three days, they’re darting dangerously around the very lines that are cutting them off, risking their lives while they wait to be rescued.
