The worst of the weather was forecast to arrive in the form of plunging temperatures, strong wind, rain and possible snow on Friday afternoon. And that happened. But first there were the floods.
The scene in Cos Cob was captured by Myra Klockenbrink who noted that the timing of the heavy rain overlapped with high tide. She captured video showing flooding of Suburban Ave and water flowing the wrong direction as the tide pushed water north from Mill Pond to the brook running south from behind the former Drawing Room and under Suburban Ave and under Putnam Ave.
There was also flooding in the area of Bruce Park and Binney Park.
Friday afternoon, Eversource announced hundreds of line and tree crews were working to restore power following the powerful rain and windstorm that hit the state overnight. There was widespread damage to the electric system and thousands of power outages. Eversource crews dealt with emergency situations including clearing blocked roads, assessing damage and restoring power to customers.
In Greenwich around 9:00am there were 450 customers without power according to Greenwich Police.
The damage to the electric system was primarily caused by the fierce winds accompanying the storm that whipped through the region, bringing trees and branches down onto power lines.
In Greenwich there were road closures all across town Friday morning, including Lower Cross Road, Meeting House Road, Creamer Hill Road, Woodside Drive, Cognewaugh Rd and Harding Road.
Holly Hill Resource Recovery Facility had a delayed opening due to down trees and power lines.
Lineworkers from Eversource’s Massachusetts team arrived Friday afternoon to assist with restoration. As of 1:30pm crews had restored power to more than 80,000 customers since the storm began. Approximately 70,000 Eversource customers in Connecticut remained without power as a result of the severe storm as of 2:15pm.
As of 5:30pm, the Eversource outage map indicated that 418 customers were affected in Greenwich.
What’s next? Expect low temperatures Friday night between 10° to 15° Fahrenheit and wind chills making it feel like it is near zero Friday and Saturday nights.
Click here for information on warming centers and important phone numbers.
Residents are able to use the lobby of the Public Safety Complex at 13 Bruce Place off of Greenwich Avenue as a warming center. You can get out of the cold and charge up personal electronic devices like cell phones if needed.
The state of Connecticut activated its cold weather protocol beginning at 6:00pm on Friday, December 23, 2022 through 12:00pm on Monday, December 26, 2022.
In the case of a police, fire or EMS emergency, people should dial 911 for immediate assistance. For other issues there are emergency helplines people can call:
Aquarion Water Company: 1-800-732-9678
Eversource: 1-800-286-2000
CT Natural Gas Company: 1-203-869-6900
Optimum/Altice: 1-866-950-3278
Frontier Communications: 1-800-239-4430