VERNON, Conn. — As the state prepares for the next storm, electric companies are preparing for possible widespread power outages, while small businesses are bracing for the financial impact as they recover from losses due to Tropical Storm Isaias.
“A punch like that is frustrating because it's something that's totally out of your control and then you lose two or three days worth of business,” says David Roberts, the owner and general manager of Anthony’s Pizza in Vernon. “[You have to] throw away a lot of food and all of the business you would have made because people eat out a lot when there's no power, so it was very frustrating.”
Eversource says they were prepared for Tropical Storm Isaias, but couldn’t predict that more than 800,000 people would be out of power. Anthony’s Pizza on the Hartford Turnpike in Vernon was out of power for two days.
“We always work extremely hard with great urgency to restore power as quickly and as safely as we can to all of our customers impacted by any storm,” says Eversource Media Relations Manager, Tricia Modifica. “We understand how difficult it is to be without power for any amount of time.”
But small businesses say they can’t afford to wait 48 hours for electric crews to turn the power back on, especially after having lost so much money due to COVID-19. Roberts was forced to throw away $4,000 in food and lost weekend business. He didn't have a full menu until the Monday after Isaias.
“It was probably like four days of disruption based on what we had to go through,” he says.
Thursday afternoon is threatening to bring strong damaging winds at 60 miles an hour and the chance for a tornado can’t be ruled out. After the last storm, Roberts says Eversource didn't rise to the occasion, but that they should be ready to this time around.
“I'm confident that they'll probably do a little better job this time at least so quickly back-to-back,” he says.
Eversource insists they were ready for Isaias and will be ready for Thursday, too.
“We want them to know, we prepare for every storm and we were prepared for the last storm and we are prepared for this weather, too,” says Modifica.
This storm comes on the heels of a PURA investigation into Eversource rate hikes resulting in some electric bills more than doubling in July.