Tropical Storm Isaias Restoration Nearly Complete in Greenwich

The town of Greenwich issued its final Tropical Storm Isaias update on Wednesday at noon, saying that fewer than 1% of the Greenwich Eversource customers were without power, which equates to less than 72 customers.

With restoration nearly complete the town is lifting its local state of emergency and is deactivating the Emergency Operations Center.

However, Departments of the Town will continue to clear roads and assist Eversource in their power restoration responsibilities.

The clean-up work conducted by the DPW and Parks & Rec is expected to take approximately two weeks.

Tropical Storm Isaias caused massive tree damage and significantly damaged the power grid.  

There were 134 completely blocked roadways by trees entangled with energized wires in the wake of the storm.

Approximately half of Greenwich was without power immediately after the storm.  Within 48 hours, many of the blockages were made passable, which resulted in an increase in the restoration of power to the Town.  

However, the damage in several areas was severe, which consequently took several more days and required extensive resources from the Town and Eversource to return to normalcy.

According to a release from Eversource Wednesday, Tropical Storm Isaias caused 25% more damage than Superstorm Sandy and Tropical Storm Irene, and utility said they restored power in 33% less time. For Isaias, crews responded to more than 20,000 damage locations, worked with communities to clear more than 2,000 blocked roads, addressed more than 2,500 broken utility poles and repaired or replaced more than 575 miles of downed or damaged electric lines.

According to the Town of Greenwich update, as of Wednesday at 12:00noon, there were only five roadways left in the Town classified as a Class 1 closure, which is a roadway blocked by trees and wires and not passable in any direction. (Police say all Class 1 closures should be open by the end of Wednesday afternoon).

There still are many roadways that have one lane passable with alternating use of lanes at certain points (Class 2), and many more that are completely passable for all travel lanes, but debris remains on, or above, the roadway (Class 3).

The Town of Greenwich is thankful for all the hard work performed by its dedicated workforce.  The Town of Greenwich is further thankful that no resident lost their life, and Tropical Storm Isaias destroyed no homes or businesses.  

There were a small number of residents that sustained injuries from Tropical Storm Isaias, and we wish them a quick and speedy recovery.

The Town of Greenwich will continue to liaison and foster its relationship with Eversource.  The close relationship and communication channels shared between the EOC and Eversource was instrumental in getting the much-needed resources into Greenwich quickly. 

After the storm damage is repaired, Eversource will work to return all short-term repairs to pre-storm operability.  Eversource contractors continue to determine their own priorities.  If you have any questions or need information from Eversource, contact them at:

Eversource Residential – https://www.eversource.com/content/ct-c/about/contact

By telephone call 800-286-2000.

Business –  https://www.eversource.com/content/ct-/about/contact?numbers=business. By telephone call 888-783-6617.

Contact for Altice/Optimum https://www.optimum.net/support/contact-us

If people want to self-report or receive updates, they can go to optimum.net/chat and click “Message Us” and choose “Technical Issues” on the main menu. Next, choose “All Services” and provide your name and phone number; you will be connected to an agent.

Contact the Town of Greenwich Public Safety Complex Dispatch Center at 203-622-8004 to report trees and wires downed and if roadways are blocked.

Being without power for extended periods is not easy.  The EOC thanks you for your patience during our response, and thank you for your understanding and support.