Windy Rainstorm Cuts Power, Disrupts Traffic

By Andrew Gorosko

Hundreds of electric customers lost their power on Wednesday during a wind-and-rain storm that brought about three inches of rain to the area and produced wind gusts exceeding 40 miles per hour.

Mitch Gross, a spokesman for the Connecticut Light & Power Company (CL&P) said that “hundreds” of Newtown electric customers lost their power on Wednesday. The exact number of outages caused by the storm was not immediately available.

Mr Gross said that at 8:20 am on Thursday, power had been restored to all but 14 local CL&P customers. The electric utility has 10,837 customers in Newtown.

CL&P crews worked to repair damaged electric lines on roads including Mt Nebo Road, Sturges Road, Obtuse Road, Lakeview Terrace, Great Ring Road, Butterfield Road, Walker Hill Road, Old Bethel Road, Sugar Street, Pond Brook Road, Riverside Road, Cold Spring Road, Grays Plain Road, and Commerce Road, he said.

The work involved fixing relatively small amounts of damage to the electric network in many scattered locations, Mr Gross said.

Between 11:35 am and 11:24 pm on Wednesday, firefighters were dispatched on 16 calls across town to deal with problems involving utility lines being brought down by the storm. 

Stormy conditions caused tree branches to fall, often bringing down utility lines with them, resulting in the cleanup and repair response by town road crews and CL&P workers.

One fire call, which came in 3:40 pm, involved a section of a large broadleaf tree having fallen onto a detached garage and an adjacent house at 30 Obtuse Road in Hawleyville, said Dave Jossick, the assistant chief of the Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company. The property is located at the intersection of Obtuse Road and Pond Brook Road.

Although there were two people in the house when the tree fell, they were not injured, Asst Chief Jossick said. The house remains habitable, he said. Cleanup and repairs are estimated to cost between $8,000 and $15,000, he added. The tree section fell largely onto the detached garage and also made contact with the house, he said.

Joe Tani, operations manager for the town’s highway department, said that some local roads needed to be closed while cleanup and repair operations were underway.

Traffic flow was temporarily halted, rerouted, or modified in areas including Palestine Road, Obtuse Road, Toddy Hill Road, Head O’ Meadow Road, near the intersection of Hanover Road and The Boulevard, near the intersection of Hattertown Road and Mt Nebo Road, and at the intersection of Queen Street and Glover Avenue.

Firefighters were dispatched on calls for wires down at locations including: Jeremiah Road, Head O’ Meadow Road, High Rock Road, Walker Hill Road, Grays Plain Road, Walnut Tree Hill Road, near the intersection of Old Bethel Road and Mt Pleasant Road, near the intersection of Queen Street and Glover Avenue, near the intersection of Obtuse Road and Pond Brook Road, near the intersection of Farview Drive and Narragansett Trail, near the intersection of Laurel Trail and Riverside Road, and near the intersection of Cherry Street and Black Cherry Lane.