Tony Towns Still Without Power

A look at the power-outage outage map as of Tuesday night, shows an interesting pattern. The towns still without power (56 percent in Darien, 51 percent in New Canaan, are mostly the tony ones, with two-acre lots or more. By contrast, only 12 percent of Norwalkers are still unplugged,.

Cities, with their urban centers, corporate office parks and larger public works departments are naturally better equipped to handle storms like this. Also, crews start with the lines that affect the most customers.

But there's another angle to the story. The toppled trees tend to be sick. "I've seen nothing but hollow trunks and dead roots in the trees that came down," says Norwalk DPW director Hal Alvord. Large properties have a lot of trees, especially next to the road to shield the homes from view. That's where the wires are. Also, these homes tend to be next to woods where trees are unattended to. More weak trees means that more are positioned to fall on power lines.

For much of Fairfield County's history, the area was mostly farmland. The heavy tree growth that we see in some places today is mostly new growth, and often invasive species such as Norway Maples. Alford says the Norways need more care in Fairfield County climate to stay healthy. 

Friday's storm wiped out the vulnerable trees, for now. It has been a lesson to homeowners: inspect your trees especially those near power lines. The roof you save might be your own.

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