Stamford Aims to Stop Trees from Killing Power

STAMFORD, Conn. — With hurricane season less than a month away, Stamford is looking for any trees on city property that could fall in a storm and knock down powerlines. 

“The city is always prepared for any storm issues,” said Ernie Orgera, director of the Office of Operations for the city.

The plan, which was proposed by Mayor Michael Pavia, will have teams made up of Stamford’s tree wardens, workers from Connecticut Light & Power and staff from the Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens evaluating trees throughout Stamford, Orgera said.

The teams will designate trees as healthy, not healthy or in need of work. The city will then make the necessary adjustments to the trees to avoid massive outages such as those that occurred during Hurricane Irene and the October nor’easter, he said.

The city has also been in talks with CL&P to have its workers embedded in Stamford with city tree crews during storms, Orgera said. That would allow the power to be shut off, trees removed and power turned back on all at once and reduce the impact on the city, he said.

According to the National Weather Service, about 11 tropical storms develop each year over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, with six becoming hurricanes. Every three years, about five hurricanes hit the U.S. coastline and kill 50 to 100 people in that time, the weather service said.

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