Date: Fri 17-Nov-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

weather-storm-power-outages

Full Text:

w/photos: Storm Batters Newtown; Half The Town Loses Power

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Utility crews from as far away as Ohio and Quebec worked in Newtown this week

to restore electricity to customers who lost power in last Saturday night's

storm.

Nearly half of Newtown found itself in the dark when winds gusting up to 65

miles per hour roared through the state, knocking down trees and power lines

and leaving 180,000 homes and businesses in Connecticut without power on

Sunday.

At 8:30 pm Sunday, at the peak of the power outage, 4,530 of Newtown's 9,888

homes, businesses and industries were affected. Margo Jackson-Douglas, a

spokesperson for Connecticut Light & Power, said crews from American Electric

in Ohio, Jersey Central Power & Light in New Jersey, and Hydro Quebec in

Canada were in the Newtown area for several days assisting with the

restoration of power.

Newtown Public Works Director Fred Hurley said employees were called in

Saturday night and Sunday to clear roads which were blocked by parts of fallen

trees including Apple Blossom, Old Hawleyville, Walnut Tree Hill, Glen Road,

Hundred Acres, Bennett's Bridge, Split Rock, Hanover, Ox Hill, Farm Field

Road, Huntingtown, Taunton Hill, Currituck as well as other streets which had

minor blockages from fallen limbs.

By Tuesday afternoon electricity had been restored, at least temporarily, to

all but six customers. Three of these were on Echo Valley Road and included

the Schmidle, Edison and Deluca households.

"A crew came out and fixed the problem at 6 pm on Tuesday but as soon as they

left, the power went out for the whole street," Mae Schmidle said. "They came

back but didn't get it restored again until 10 pm."

The Echo Valley Road families endured more than three days without heat,

lights and running water.

"We lost power for about the same length of time during Hurricane Gloria in

1985, but this was worse because the temperature was much colder," Mrs

Schmidle said. "It gave my husband and me a good taste of what it must have

been like when John Glover built this house in 1710 and lived in it for two

years."

Margo Jackson-Douglas said that the same time the problem occurred on Echo

Valley Road, a total of about 495 customers lost power in Newtown because of a

transformer fire at Academy Lane and Route 25. Everyone was back in service by

11:30 pm Tuesday, she said.

Mr Hurley said the Newtown road crews worked in conjunction with the CL&P

crews, clearing the roads as soon as the utility wires were removed from the

fallen trees.

"We really didn't finish until today," he said on Wednesday. "I think Hundred

Acres was the last road to be opened sometime on Tuesday."

The storm also dumped up to three inches of rain in the Danbury area, causing

drainage problems. A water main broke on West Street in Newtown Saturday

night, closing that road until early Monday.

State officials have estimated that repairing the damage from the storm across

Connecticut will cost at least several million dollars, including a utility

cleanup bill of between $1.5 million and $3 million. The out-of-state line

crews arrived late Sunday and early Monday to relieve the 500 workers on

Northeast Utilities System crews.

The storm hit Newtown Saturday afternoon, causing the first reported power

outage at 4:27 pm. The pace of outages picked up after 8 pm and continued

through the night and through Sunday even though the storm had stopped by

Sunday morning.

"The number of outages peaked Sunday evening because of what we call

`residue,'" Margo Jackson-Douglas explained. "That means there are continued

outages caused by branches that were weakened by the storm and fell on limbs

because of gusts of wind later, or that lines had to be de-energized for

safety reasons while the repair crews were working in an area."

Mr Hurley said the storm caused some settling on Meadow, Elizabeth and other

streets which had been excavated for lateral sewer lines. "When our crews were

caught up with the cleanup operations and were waiting for the CL&P crews to

finish working on the power lines, they used that time to fill the settled

areas with gravel," he said.

School officials opened the Newtown Middle School on Sunday as a shelter for

anyone who had lost power but no one used the facility, they said.