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As of 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 10, 69,166 of Eversource’s 1,281,332 Connecticut customers were still reporting outages six days after the storm struck. UI was still responding to 492 reported outages that were affecting 1,429 of the customer’s 337,496 customers.
“We have a serious situation developing at the Glen Apartments on Memorial Drive,” Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said. “Still no power. Many residents there are elderly and/or disabled. So far Eversource has not responded to our pleas to restore service and there are no trucks on scene.”
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has called in the Connecticut and National Guard in to help clear roads and pathways to allow utility crews to make necessary repairs more expeditiously. He also announced that he has also had discussions with President Donald Trump about an Emergency Declaration and receiving financial support.
“This schedule of restorations for our cities and towns should act as deadlines, with a clear goal of getting power and air conditioning back sooner,” Lamont posted on social media. “I expect and demand that Eversource act with urgency over the coming days.”
While touring Danbury and Westport, two of the hardest-hit areas in Connecticut, to survey the damage done, Lamont said that he’s going to hold the utility companies accountable.
“We’re going to hold Eversource’s feet to the fire until they get every single person back up and operating,” Lamont said during a news conference outside Danbury High School attended by United States Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and Boughton. “This is an emergency and we are going to treat it like an emergency all the way.”
Eversource President of Regional Electric Operations Craig Hallstrom said that crews have restored power to more than 80,000 in the past 24 hours and expect restoration to be “substantially complete” by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Hallstrom noted that in the process of restoring power to all those affected by Isaias, some customers may lose power as a necessary step to allow crews to safely make needed repairs to restore service to many more customers.
“We know how urgently customers need their power restored, especially right now given the pandemic and hot summer weather, and we are making significant progress,” Hallstrom said. “Our crews and the thousands of out-of-state crews working alongside them have done a tremendous job under difficult conditions – working in the heat while abiding by social distancing and pandemic safety protocols.
“The field crews and thousands of support personnel working behind the scenes are committed to staying on the job until every customer has their power back.”
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