With winds gusting over 75 miles-per-hour in some locations and torrential rain soaking a majority of Connecticut, Wednesday night’s powerful storm caused extensive damage across the state.
According to Eversource, the storm interrupted electric service to more than 89,500 customers of the utility.
As of mid day on Thursday, Eversource said the company’s line and tree crews have been working non-stop and have already restored power to more than 50,000 since the storm began.
Crews from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, as well as contractors from New York and Pennsylvania, will soon be assisting with the restoration effort.
“The wet ground from the heavy downpours coupled with the strong winds last night caused trees and limbs to fall, tearing down power lines and utility poles across our service territory,” said Peter Clarke, Senior Vice President of Emergency Preparedness at Eversource, who said they are restoring service as quickly and safely as possible to all those affected.
The company’s early focus is on clearing blocked roads, making downed wires safe and restoring the largest areas of outages.
After assessing the widespread and vast destruction to the electric system, Eversource expects to have power restored for a majority of customers by 11:30pm Friday night. The company restores outages affecting the largest number of customers first, so outages that affect a smaller number of customers may take longer, as they are oftentimes more labor-intensive.
Eversource crews and contractors are focused on a safe and speedy restoration and the company reminds the public to stay clear of downed lines and to call 9-1-1 to report them immediately. Anyone experiencing a power outage should report it to Eversource at 1-800-286-2000, or on Eversource.com.
Eversource (NYSE: ES) transmits and delivers electricity to 1.2 million customers in 149 cities and towns and provides natural gas to 222,000 customers in 72 communities in Connecticut. Eversource harnesses the commitment of its approximately 8,000 employees across three states to build a single, united company around the mission of delivering reliable energy and superior customer service. For more information, please visit our website (www.eversource.com) and follow us on Twitter (@EversourceCT) and Facebook (facebook.com/EversourceCT).