NORWICH, Conn. — Power in Norwich has been restored after an outage impacted 600 of the city’s public utilities customers Wednesday.
The power outage happened along Laurel Hill Road where a big section of wires came down, according to Chris Riley, spokesperson for Norwich Public Utilities.
“Probably because of wind and a tree limb,” Riley said.
Crews worked to get the power back on for several hours.
“It's a very complex issue to get the wires untangled, reinstalled, fix the equipment that may have been damaged, and to re-energize our lines,” Riley said.
Restoring the power involved "very complex, very dangerous work."
"We've got to do it safely and carefully, and we hope that people understand that we're working as quickly as we can," he said.
Crews were concerned if the wind would pick up while they were working. Riley noted that they made sure they were prepared for the weather.
“It's critical to us, any storm, to make sure you have the right equipment material and people in place so that you can respond no matter what comes our way, we've been meeting about this throughout the day. We had some meetings yesterday, a lot of information being shared,” Riley said. “We have good track record in restoring power when there are large scale outages, and we're confident we'll be able to meet the challenge again tonight.”
Dana Stanley, a worker at Harbor Freight in Norwich, said he made sure he was prepared as well.
“I don't have a generator, but I have lights, and I have an outdoor grill, so if things go down, I could still cook outside. It's covered, it's under a porch. Extra batteries. Always have extra. We have tons of batteries and flashlights,” Stanley said.
During Stanley’s shift, he said he noticed an increase of customers coming to buy survival and home repair supplies, including "tarps, lights, generators and some sump pumps."
Riley said they will continue to watch the weather closely and remain prepared to respond to any other issues that may occur. He added that anyone near a downed power line should not go near it and call 911 instead.
Cayla Cade is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at ccade@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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