Date: Fri 25-Oct-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

weather-wind-flooding

Full Text:

with cuts: Wind And Water Create A Mess In Newtown

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Residents spent much of this week cleaning up in the aftermath of a strong

nor'easter, which knocked down trees and flooded basements last weekend.

Winds which gusted between 40 and 50 miles per hour swept through town late

Saturday afternoon, knocking out power to 2,560 homes and businesses. At the

peak of the storm, more than 90,000 customers in Fairfield and Litchfield

counties were without electricity.

Margo Jackson-Douglas, a spokesperson for Connecticut Light & Power, said the

company had 285 line crews and 75 tree crews working from Saturday until power

was restored to the last customers.

"We got our first calls at about 4:30 on Saturday," she said. "Most of Newtown

was restored by 10:30 am Sunday but a few customers were still out until 9:30

pm on Monday."

Statewide, CL&P lost 80 poles and 70 transformers were damaged.

Between four and six inches of rain fell on most Fairfield County communities

with Trumbull logging 7.16 inches and Danbury 4.5, according to the weather

center at Western Connecticut State University. It was a record high rainfall

for the date for most western-Connecticut communities. The previous record for

Danbury was 1.75 inches in 1966.

The 911 emergency dispatch center in Edmond Town Hall sent volunteer

firefighters on 25 calls, most involving trees down on wires, between 2:51 pm

and midnight Saturday. The calls continued on Sunday, beginning at 1:32 am,

but most of these were pumping details as the heavy rain flooded basements

across town. There were 19 calls on Sunday, 14 of which were requests for

pumping.

Some of the largest power outages occurred when trees fell on wires in Sandy

Hook on Great Ring Road, Berkshire Road, Great Quarter Road, Jeremiah,

Riverside Road, Underhill Road, Fawnwood and Edge Lake Drive. Firefighters

responded to several calls involving trees, wires and poles down on Hanover

Road. Trees fell on Elm Drive, Head O'Meadow Road, Hattertown Road, Brushy

Hill, West Street and Castle Hill Road.

At 5:50 pm Saturday, all Sandy Hook firefighters were called to stand by at

the firehouse; all available Hook & Ladder and Botsford personnel were called

in at 6:06 pm. At the height of the demands for assistances on Saturday,

Hawleyville firefighters responded to several calls for Hook & Ladder and had

the fire pumping request, at 8:27 pm on Tunnel Road.

The bridge over the Pootatuck River on Mile Hill Road near Exit 11 was closed

because of the flooding until late Sunday morning.

Jim Crouch, director of the 911 center, came in to help dispatcher Mike Ryan

who was on duty when the calls started coming in Saturday. Mr Crouch left just

before 8 pm, stopped at the Magic Machine for a video, and drove toward his

house on Castle Hill Road where he discovered that a huge willow tree in his

yard had blown down across the street.

"Five minutes later the transformer blew up and we had fireworks," he said.

Mr Crouch said the CL&P response was both interesting and efficient.

"The first crew came to cut the small branches from the tree," he said. "The

next team took care of the big parts of the tree. The third team fixed the

transformer. The fourth repaired the small line which went to my house. We

didn't get our power back until almost Sunday midnight."

At almost the height of the storm, Charles and Carol Foss of Sandy Hook were

on a TWA flight which was approaching JFK Airport on a flight from Milan,

Italy.

"The pilot warned us that we were going to hit some bad weather with heavy

rain and wind shears and have a very rough landing," Carol said. "When I heard

the words `wind shear,' I figured `this is it.' Fortunately, we made it but as

it turned out, a plane did lose its landing gear and slid off a runway at

LaGuardia."