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First Selectman Rudy Marconi said the hope is that as Connecticut Light & Power crews finish in towns with fewer outages more crews would come into Ridgefield.
“Outside of the shoreline communities that have really been struck with disaster I think we probably are the most serious in terms of damage that has the highest number of outages right now,” Marconi said.
As of Friday afternoon there are still 72 roads that are blocked, and five that are either completely blocked or have sections completely blocked to emergency vehicles.
The five, Bridle Trail, Flat Rock Road, Harvey Road, Round Lake Road and Lincoln Road are considered priority roads to clear and the National Guard soldiers along with a CL&P wire crews will be focusing on them, Marconi said.
“The common message from the crews returning, was that the trees that came down are incredibly large,” Marconi said. He added that during Tropical Storm Irene last year the biggest trees that had come down were between 18 and 24 inches in diameter. According to the crews working right now there are 36 inch diameter trees that have come down. The size of the trees, Marconi said, is what is really slowing down the road clearing and ultimately power restoration.
In addition to the number of trees down there are around 30 poles down and there are an additional 18 tree crews and five patrollers, or people who travel the circuits doing an inventory, in town.
“I hope that people exercise patience and understand that all resources are being stretched to the maximum now,” Marconi said. “But when you look at the devastation in other areas and compare their losses to ours, we have a lot to be thankful for.”
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