NEWTOWN, Conn. — As the number of power outages statewide continue to dwindle, the appetite to blame Eversource has not at all subsided.
During a Wednesday morning press conference in Newtown, state and local leaders said Eversource lied to the public.
"People judge you not by what you say, but what you do," said State Senator Tony Hwang, whose district includes Newtown.
"Eversource promised that they would be prepared. They said they were prepared. I do not believe they were."
Eversource said, in a statement, "Tropical Storm Isaias caused 25 percent more damage than Superstorm Sandy and Tropical Storm Irene, and the men and women, working at Eversource, restored power in 33 percent less time."
Contract utility crews have talked, off the record, about sitting idle for hours, with no instructions from Eversource. Town leaders have also noticed holes in communications between their Eversource liaisons and the command center.
Newtown's First Selectman, Dan Rosenthal, said spoke of a recent conversation with his Eversource liason, for whom he says a great deal of respect.
"He could tell me where the outages were," Rosenthal noted. "He had a hard time telling me how many crews were in town."
Rosenthal said elected officials cannot become complacent just because the power is back on. To that end, a hearing will be held on August 24 before the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA).
"That's to reevaluate this issue and also, ironically, to reconsider the rate increase that was requested by Eversource," said Whang.
And the state legislature's Energy and Technology Committee will also schedule a public hearing some point soon.
"To make sure that we hold every source accountable and we put protocols in place to make sure the crews are there when people need them," said Rosenthal.
And he says by Eversource not completing its job in a timely fashion, it resulted in the death of a local family's dog. The family let the dog outside, to take care of its business Saturday morning, which was four days after the storm, and the dog was electrocuted by a live wire.
The Eversource statement also said, "Since the beginning of the Isaias, crews responded to more than 20,000 damage locations, worked with communities to clear more than 2,000 blocked roads, addressed more than 2,500 broken utility poles and repaired or replaced more than 575 miles of downed or damaged electric lines."