More Than 300,000 Statewide Still Without Power

Residents keeping tabs on the Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P) outage map may notice the numbers in their towns rising and falling. According to representatives from CL&P, this is caused by a combination of new outages, restoration efforts and the latest reports from customers.

due to the effects of tropical storm Irene, with statewide as of Wednesday morning.

In Madison, about 82 percent of the town is still without power, according to the outage map. But an update from the town Wednesday evening said 87 percent of the town was still without power. Several residents, writing in to Patch, have expressed frustration with what they perceive as the slow pace of the repairs and because they have not seen any CL&P crews at all. Another Patch reader wrote in via email to say that CL&P has been providing enough information for him to feel like he understands the status of the repair work. 

"Out of curiosity, just called CL&P regarding the power at my place," he wrote around 9:45 AM.  "I was very surprised to get a human being pretty quickly, with very detailed information. Crews were in Madison yesterday around 4:30 in the afternoon, examining the power issues here. They have a list of the parts/equipment they need to fix the problem, and should have an estimate as to when we will be back on, perhaps by 6 p.m. tonight.  There is a problem with the main line on 79, among other things.  Pretty good info.  Number is 800-286-2000."

In Madison, power was restored to most of the downtown commerical district around noon Wednesday, must to the delight of everyone downtown. Then, not too long after, the lights went back out. And, shortly thereafter, they went back on.

Shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday, , at 1347 Boston Post Road across from the Griswold Airport Property on the east side of town, reported on Twitter that they had power back on, "Power just came back to our Madison location. Woo hoo!!! We'll still be working with a modified schedule and menu..."

Like many restaurants in town, Cohen's likely had to get rid of much of its food supply during the outage. Starbucks said they plan to open first thing Thursday morning. Subway, next door, said they would try to open Thursday, but that it might be Friday, depending on when they could restock. On Wednesday, Subway gave away coupons and encouraged people to come back later this week.

According to CL&P spokesman Janine Saunders, 95 percent of the outages caused by Irene were the result of trees pulling down power lines, however some did not go down right away, causing new outages in some areas in the days after the storm.

“At the start, many of those [trees] were just leaning on wires,” Saunders said Wednesday. “Now some have brought those wires down.”

Saunders also noted that, at times, workers will have to disconnect power in certain areas in order to work on repairs safely, sometimes for several hours.

Though CL&P has been inundated with calls since the storm hit, Saunders stressed that it was important for residents to report loss of power to the electric company, as the data for their outage reports comes directly from customers. CL&P is asking residents to report outages to 1-800-286-2000.

“If you had power and then lost it, report it,” Saunders said, as a recurring loss of power may be an individual issue and not part of a larger outage. 

Here are the outage numbers, according to the outage map as of 10:15 p.m. Wednesday night:

• Branford, 57 percent
• Clinton, 75 percent
• Durham, 47 percent
• Essex, 66 percent
• Guilford, 75 percent
• Killingworth, 82 percent
• Madison, 82 percent
• Old Saybrook, 34 percent
• Westbrook, 54 percent