HARTFORD, Conn — Eversource said all of their of customers who lost powered because of Tropical Storm Isaias have had their power restored.
The outage page listed 766 outages across the state, but Mitch Gross said those are not related to the tropical storm.
According to their outage map, the company dipped below their goal of having less than one percent of their customers without power around 6:30 pm on Tuesday evening when they said only 12,313 customers remained without power or 0.96% of customers. That number has dropped as the night went on.
United Illuminating said less than 50 of its customers were without power as of Tuesday evening. "Any remaining individual outages are being resolved today except for those that require the customer to rebuild or repair their home or business to accept service; in those cases, the company will work with the customer and their municipality to coordinate reconnection."
It's been a week since Tropical Storm Isaias hit the state, causing hundreds of thousands of power outages. As many were left in the dark, criticism arose around Eversource and United Illuminating's response effort.
While customers and lawmakers are demanding the leaders of Eversource be fired, the company says their hardened infrastructure and repeated vegetation trimming was simply no match for Tropical Storm Isaias.
The company insists 99 percent of its customers will be restored by late Tuesday evening.
"I again want to express my understanding of the frustration of our customers," said Eversource President of Regional Electric Operations, Craig Hallstrom.
He says Eversource did not expect the fury this storm unleashed but insists they did have crews in place before the storm hit.
Hallstrom said the company fielded a larger response than it did during Hurricane Sandy or Irene and expects power to be restored in a 30% shorter time frame. He said there was more damage to power lines during this storm than the earlier storms.
He said the Danbury area was among the worst hit in the state. As crews were finished with repairs in other parts of the state, they moved to the Danbury area to help there.
Hallstrom said there were some delays due to the pandemic, some crews elected to stay in their vehicles overnight and some had to be put up at hotels farther away from where they were working.
He said all of the more than 550 polling places in the state had had power restored.
Eversource has established satellite command centers are located in: Berlin, Cheshire, Madison, Norwalk, Tolland, and Torrington.
“These satellite command centers put our crews and materials closer to the areas where they’re needed most,providing us greater flexibility to more quickly deploy the massive crew resources that we’ve brought into Connecticut,” said Craig Hallstrom, Eversource's President of Regional Electric Operations. “We remain grateful to our customers for their patience during these unprecedented times of COVID-19, and we will not rest until every customer has power.”
“We are continuing to identify and bring in additional crews and resources in order to safely restore our impacted customers as quickly as possible. We have made good progress to address the destruction left by Tropical Storm Isaias, but we still have some work ahead of us to restore the remaining customers,” said Tony Marone, UI’s President and CEO.
UI employees are working with hundreds of contractors and mutual assistance personnel hailing from across the country, including Alabama, Maine, Mississippi, New York, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Gov. Lamont tweeted Saturday asking Connecticut residents to not " take frustration out in the linesman, who are working tirelessly."
Eversource reminds customers to always stay clear of downed wires and to report them immediately to 9-1-1. Be sure to report any outage online at www.eversource.com, or by calling 800-286-2000. Customers who signed up for the company’s two-way texting feature can send a text to report an outage and receive outage updates as they happen.
To report an outage in Wallingford contact the Wallingford Electrical Division 203-265-5055.
Norwich Public Utilities' Customer Service Center will be closed to walk-in visitors but NPU’s Customer Service Representatives will be available as usual to report outages at (860) 887-2555. If there are widespread outages the company plans on providing updates through their Facebook page.
United Illuminating stresses that those customers who rely on life-saving medical equipment should have a plan in case of a sudden or extended loss of service. UI medical and life-support customers should register in advance to ensure the company is aware of their needs. Call UI at 800.722.5584 (800.7.CALL.UI)
To report an outage, visit uinet.com or call 800.722.5584 (800.7.CALL.UI). Customers can also report outages using the company’s new mobile app, available from the Apple Store and Google Play. Or, they can report outages via UI’s mobile alerts system: text “OUT” to 839-884 (TEXT-UI). Registration is required.
If you have a generator, keep the following in mind:
- • Do not use a generator that plugs into your home’s electrical system unless it was installed by a licensed electrician via a transfer switch. Improperly connected generators can back-feed electricity into the outside grid and pose a danger to the public and to crews working to restore service.
- • Carefully read and observe the instructions in your generator’s operating manual.
- • Properly ground all portable generators.
- • Never run a generator indoors, in an open garage, or near a window.
- • Do not store fuel indoors or try to refuel a generator while it’s running.