CONNECTICUT, USA — Wednesday’s deadly weather had residents cleaning up Thursday and coming to the realization that it may take days before they get their power back.
This wasn’t a coastal storm. It slid straight across central Connecticut from west to east, taking trees and power lines with it.
“Significant tree damage,” said Steve Sullivan, head of electric operations at Eversource.
The growl of a chainsaw, the chop of the chipper, the hum of the generator. All the sounds of severe weather cleanup echoed across central Connecticut Thursday.
“I can keep the fridge on, I can cook here and in the microwave. We will be fine,” said Simsbury resident Dick Carlson.
“It’s just interesting to walk down the street with your mom and see all the generators. It’s kind of sad,” added Lauren Sabia of Simsbury.
Strong early summer storms resulted in a day of damage.
“I can tell just looking at the locations and looking at the numbers. It will be multi-day. So we are probably into the weekend for the last customers,” remarked Sullivan.
Over on Hedgehog Lane in Simsbury, residents were in the dark. Literally and figuratively.
“We're all not being given much promise from Eversource in terms of time,” said Carlson.
Eversource said Wednesday’s weather resulted in 1,200 trouble spots, 90,000 customer outages and 150 blocked roads. The utility has about 750 crews from Connecticut and beyond crisscrossing the state.
“Definitely seems like the number of thunderstorm events that we have here in Connecticut along with the size and fury of them is certainly greater than what it was 10 years ago,” said Sullivan.
In Simsbury, there were downed trees, snapped limbs, grounded power lines and stories of the seconds before the storms slammed the state.
“I knew something was coming. I had gone to bed knowing the rain was coming in. Didn’t seem too bad but I was reading the book and all of a sudden the lights went out,” said Carlson.
“My wife woke me up and said we better get down to the basement,” said neighbor Lenny Sabia. “I looked outside. I never saw it like that before since I can remember, so we went down to the basement and a tree fell and took out our wires to the house.”
Eversource said Wednesday’s storms were stronger than expected, forcing them to activate their emergency response plan. In addition to all the homes left in the dark, the utility said 60 critical facilities like hospitals and nursing homes lost power. They are working to get those powered up first.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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