Storm Cuts Power,

Closes Roads

By Andrew Gorosko

Heavy rains and blustery conditions during the weekend of March 13–14 kept local emergency service crews busy across town amid a landscape in which storm-weakened trees toppled and branches fell, sometimes onto power lines, resulting in scattered power outages and road closures.

Although the wind and water thrust upon the town by the nor’easter caused pockets of damage, the physical effects here were milder and less extensive than those experienced along Connecticut’s southwest coastline, which bore the brunt of the lengthy storm.

Connecticut Light & Power Company (CL&P) spokesman Jeff Tilghman said this week that the electric utility, which serves 10,824 customers in Newtown, started receiving reports of outages about 5:30 pm on Saturday, March 13. The number of outages peaked several hours later at about 8 pm, when 825 local customers were reported to have lost electricity due to the storm.

The number of outages represents about 7.6 percent of CL&P’s customers in Newtown, meaning that about 1 in 13 of CL&P’s local customers were without electricity during the peak problem period.

Almost all of CL&P customers in Newtown had their power restored by 1 am Monday, March 15, Mr Tilghman said.

At the height of the power outages, more than 85,000 state customers of CL&P and United Illuminating were without electricity, with the bulk of those outages occurring in the coastal southwestern section of the state where the storm damage was most extensive.

Fred Hurley, the town’s public works director, said that the falling tree branches caused road closures in scattered sections of town.

The heavy rains also caused extensive erosion on some dirt roads, he said. Severe washouts caused the temporary closure of dirt roads, including Deep Brook Road and Morris Road, he said.

More typically, the storm caused tree branches to fall, which sometimes brought down utility lines with them, he said.

Road sections that closed temporarily due to such problems included Capitol Drive, Obtuse Road, Bennetts Bridge Road, Palestine Road, Alpine Circle, Aunt Park Lane, Old Bethel Road, and Toddy Hill Road.

Even after the storm had ended, some trees that were weakened by the high winds and saturating rains continued to shed branches, creating problems.

On Monday, March 15, there were reports of wires down on Bennetts Bridge Road, and reports of trees and wires down on Boggs Hill Road and Evergreen Road.

Between 9:45 am on Saturday, March 13, and 3:31 pm on Sunday, March 14, firefighters from the town’s five volunteer fire companies responded to 18 storm-related calls for service.

Between Sunday morning and Tuesday afternoon, firefighters were dispatched on seven calls to pump out flooded basements.

During a 36-hour period starting about 10 am Saturday morning, police were dispatched to 14 calls involving public hazards, most of which were storm-related.

Mr Hurley said he expects that because CL&P conducts a more extensive tree-trimming program in this area than it does in the southwestern part of the state, it reduced the local likelihood of tree branches falling onto power lines here during the storm, thus reducing the potential electrical outages that would occur.

Nevertheless, when stressed, old trees will die and fall down under the forces of a storm, he said.

Mr Hurley said that the damage caused by last weekend’s storm was not nearly as extensive as that caused locally by a May 2007 tornado.

High Visibility

One of the most visible incidents that happened during the weekend storm occurred when falling tree parts caused an electric line to hit the pavement on Bennetts Bridge Road, near its intersections with Zoar Road and Gelding Hill Road.

The electric voltage from the power line damaged the pavement, causing an extremely bright fire on the street that was visible for great distances, according to Bill Halstead, Sandy Hook’s fire chief.

The fallen live wire would not trip the fuse on its electric circuit and continued to burn, he said. The intense heat caused the pavement to melt, fuse and be transformed into a glasslike substance.

Firefighters received multiple reports of that fire from various vantage points, including Zoar Road, Orange Pippin Road, and Charter Ridge Drive.

Even some Southbury residents who are located a considerable distance away, across the Housatoinic River, called to report the fire, the fire chief said.

The burning electric line created a hole in Bennetts Bridge Road, which a town road crew later patched.

After CL&P turned off the power at the scene, Sandy Hook firefighters poured about 4,500 gallons of water onto the street to cool it off, the fire chief said.

The pavement was so hot from the fire that the water poured onto the pavement simply boiled away.

There were no injuries at the incident.

Fallen trees and damaged utility poles and power lines at Toddy Hill Road caused a section of that major connector road to close to traffic for an extended period. Some of the blockages occurred along Toddy Hill Road between its intersections with Quarry Ridge Road and Sugarloaf Road.

CL&P crews reportedly were so busy attending to storm repairs that they were unable to address the Toddy Hill Road situation until Sunday afternoon. Police stood by to divert traffic to detours.

(Associate Editor Shannon Hicks contributed to this story.)