BRANFORD, Conn. — Eversource announced Friday afternoon most people will get their power back by midnight Friday with the exception of Branford who was hardest hit.
The energy company had hundreds of crews dispatched throughout Branford, working 24/7 to cut down trees and replace power lines. Residents hoped they would not be in the dark for several days like Tropical Storm Isaias.
"We’ll see when they come out this time. It took five days last time so we’re waiting. We heard 8 o’clock last night then 8:30 this morning. Then it was 2 o’clock and now it’s tomorrow at midnight," said Bob of Branford.
Bob said since 4 p.m. Thursday, his power has been out. Since then, his generator been running stop.
He said he got lucky with no downed trees and wires by his home and only some debris he had been cleaning up since 6:30 in the morning.
Right down the road from Bob was Michelle Ferrara and her home was a different story.
"We could just hear the wind, the windows were shaking in the basement, I could hear the snapping of the trees," said Michelle Ferrara of Branford.
She also lost power around 4 p.m. Thursday after a large tree tumbled down. Fortunately, it missed her home.
"We have a generator so that is keeping our refrigerators running and it gives us light. We can’t run our AC off of it because it’s not big enough but it’s making it so that you know, we’re okay," added Ferrara.
Ferrara commended Eversource this time and said she noticed an increased presence around neighborhoods.
"So far, great. we're still out of power so we still don't have power. but they did have the tree company remove the limbs from the lines," added Ferrara.
On route one, Eversource had their Mobile Response Center set up where it acted as the main hub for where crews were dispatched and came back to.
There were new poles, power lines, and transformers ready to go.
Frank Poirot with Eversource said their crews had been working hard to restore power to many towns and cities but since Branford was hardest hit, it would take a while to clean the debris before replacing power lines.
"Just getting to some of the troubled spots of where the damage to our system was done takes a bit of doing and trees are blocking the path of crews so moving into that takes a bit of work before we even begin to put eyes on some of these damage spots," said Poirot of Eversource.
As of Friday afternoon, more than four thousand customers in Branford still did not have power. Poirot said that number has gone down as of Friday morning.
"Branford we’re making good progress right now as well. If they’re watching our outage map which is online, they’ll notice that the percentage of residents without power is dropping pretty quickly," added Poirot.
A few reminders if you have damage in your area - always assume all downed power lines are live and stay away from crews while they work to prevent any hazardous situation.
For anyone who needs to cool off until they get their power back, the Joe Trapasso Community House on Church Street will be open until 7 p.m. daily, and charging stations are available at the fire department and town hall.