Politics & Government

A Third Restored

The percentage of Stratford homes and businesses without power dropped 11 points Monday -- from 35 to 24, United Illuminating has reported.

Shortly after Genny McHugh's Florida home was repaired and sold after suffering major damage from Hurricane Wilma in 2005, she moved to Connecticut.

"I went through three hurricanes in Florida," McHugh said Monday afternoon from her Jefferson Street porch in Lordship.

Without power, McHugh and her husband seemed to be trying to enjoy the pleasant sunshine a day after the storm surge associated with Hurricane Irene crept up to the edge of their driveway.

"One more inch and it would have been in the basement," she said, adding that her next-door neighbor had about six inches of water in his basement.

Though McHugh said she felt lucky enough to dodge any flooding problems, she said she was still frustrated with not having power.

As of 10 a.m. Monday, McHugh was a part of the 35 percent of Stratford residents in the dark, United Illuminating reported.

"We are making our way from the main roads to the side streets," said a UI lineman who was working on a downed wire at Paradise Green Monday and spoke on condition of anonymity. "Definitely the first thing is public safety and getting live wires off the ground."

After the downed wires are repaired, the priority switches to lines feeding electricity to hospitals and shelters then main roads and then side streets, he said. In regard to side streets, the more residents a repair can restore power to, the higher that street is on the list, he added.

The UI worker reported that power was restored to Ferry Boulevard earlier in the day. He said there are currently about 80 linemen covering 17 towns in the area, and UI is expecting contractors from other parts of the country to come and assist in the region soon.

At a press conference at the Emergency Operations Center in Hartford late Monday afternoon, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the problem was that since Irene devastated such a large portion of the East Coast, many of the areas that Connecticut would typically import work crews from for power restoration were either dealing with power outages in their own states or were needed elsewhere.

“We don’t have enough crews from around the country responding at the moment to Connecticut,” Malloy said.

United Illuminating vice president John Prete also briefed the media Monday on power restoration efforts throughout the state.

“At the peak of this storm, we had 155,000 customers out, that’s half our territory,” he said. “We did not see devastation like that since Hurricane Gloria.”

The UI worker also compared the damage to the 1985 hurricane. He said the power outage numbers are higher than Gloria's figures because towns like Stratford are more densely populated now.

However, at the end of the day Monday -- midnight to be exact -- progress was made evident by the numbers.

Statewide, the 155,000 figure dropped to 85,630 customers without power.

And in Stratford, the percentage of subscribers in the dark fell 11 percent points, to 24, or 5,499 homes and businesses.

Did you recently have your power restored? Do you have family or friends still in the dark? Tell us in the comments section below.


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