Brief Rain, Windstorm Causes

Extensive Power Outages, Road Closures

By Andrew Gorosko

A brief but powerful windstorm accompanied by heavy rains, which hit the town midafternoon on Sunday, June 6, caused extensive power outages, resulting in almost one-quarter of the Connecticut Light & Power Company’s (CL&P) local customers losing their electric service at the height of outages.

The sudden, intense storm caused numerous trees and tree limbs to fall, often bringing down electric lines as they fell. All five local volunteer fire companies responded to calls across town to deal with storm-related problems.

During the period from 3:17 pm to 8:36 pm, fire companies responded to at least 42 fire calls involving utility lines having been brought down by fallen trees or tree limbs.

During an exceptionally busy 52-minute period starting at 3:12 pm, the fire companies responded to 28 fire calls.

Besides downed electric lines, the fallen trees resulted in many road sections being closed to traffic until debris could be removed to create clear passage on those streets. Detours were required until normal routes could be restored.

Street sections closed to traffic for varying periods of time included Birch Hill Road, Taunton Lane, Taunton Hill Road, Nelson Lane, Bridge End Farm Lane, Shepaug Road, Walnut Tree Hill Road, Locust Drive, Sherman Street, Berkshire Road, Currituck Road, Roosevelt Drive, Hitfield Road, Meadow Road, Hall Lane, Tinkerfield Road, Sanford Road, Edgewood Drive, Great Quarter Road, Hanover Road, Beechwood Drive, Jo-Mar Drive, and Barnabas Road, among others.

Police Sergeant Aaron Bahamonde said he knew of no injuries that occurred due to the brief but intense windstorm.

Motorists who encountered detours due to the many blocked road sections were cooperative and took the detours to reach their destinations, he said.

The town road department posted appropriate traffic signs as needed to make the driving public aware of the temporary detours, he said.

CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross said, “We were extremely busy,” of CL&P’s need to make many electric repairs after the storm.

In Newtown, at the peak of electric outages at about 5 pm, approximately 2,550 CL&P customers, or about 23.5 percent of the company’s 10,828 customers in town, were without power, he said.

Statewide, about 11,400 CL&P customers lost their electricity at the peak of outages, he said. The company has 1.2 million customers statewide.

Besides Newtown, the nearby towns of Bethel, Redding, Brookfield, and Southbury experienced significant electric outages, he said.

When winds exceed 40 miles per hour, it creates challenging conditions for electric crews making repairs after storms, he said.

CL&P opened its emergency operations center in Berlin to handle the heavy flow of emergency calls, Mr Gross said.

Nearly all electric service was restored in Newtown by about 2:30 am on Monday, June 7, Mr Gross said. The last storm-related power outages were repaired by midday Monday, he added.

“Newtown had a lot of storm damage,” he said. Dozens of CL&P repair crews went to Newtown to restore power to affected CL&P customers, he said.

The length of a given electric outrage is variable, he said, adding that the electric utility seeks to restore power as soon as possible.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said that all local emergency services and the town road department worked well together to restore normal conditions following the storm.

Meteorologist Gary Lessor, the assistant director of The Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, said that a strong cold front which was moving through the region midafternoon on June 6 resulted in a peak wind gust of 51 miles per hour in Danbury.

Winds that strong result in falling trees and power outages, he noted.

Strong thunderstorms that occurred to the north in Litchfield County resulted in strong downdrafts hitting this area, he said. Between one-quarter-inch and one-half-inch of rain fell in this area during a 15- to 20-minute period, representing heavy rainfall, he said.

Although this area was under a tornado watch during the day, no tornado materialized, he said.

Of the storm, Fred Hurley, the town public works director, said succinctly, “Short duration, high intensity.”

“We worked hand-in-hand with CL&P” to get closed roads reopened to traffic, he said. CL&P repairs storm-related electrical problems and clears away major fallen debris, after which the town does additional cleanup work to make the roads passable to vehicles, he said.

About two dozen road sections were blocked to traffic flow after the storm, he said.

Although many utility lines came down in the storm, the repairs that were needed were relatively simple repairs to make, he said.

Sandy Hook Fire Chief Bill Halstead said of the brief but intense storm, “There was something that went through here.”

Sandy Hook firefighters responded to 18 storm-related calls on Sunday, he said. About 37 fire company personnel responded to incidents, he added.

The fire chief noted that a fallen electric line resulted in the pavement catching fire on a section of Berkshire Road (Route 34). That fire burned for several hours until CL&P crews arrived at the scene to shut off the electricity, he said. The incident occurred on Berkshire Road between its intersections with Bennetts Bridge Road and Tanglewood Lane.

Chief Halstead said the emergencies that firefighters responded on that day fell into three general categories: wires down, trees down, or trees and wires down.

“We were running from call to call to call,” he said.

 Chief Halstead noted that one call that was reported as a structure fire at 3:25 pm, actually involved two separate trees falling onto two separate houses at #2 and #4 Oak Drive.

The tree that fell onto the house 2 Oak Drive damaged that house, but the tree that fell onto the home at 4 Oak Drive did not damage that structure, he said. Neither incident involved injuries and both homes are habitable, he said.

Hook & Ladder Fire Chief Jason Rivera said that considering the extensive number of fire calls received on June 6, firefighters’ responses to the incidents went smoothly. Hook & Ladder staffers went on about 15 storm-related calls following the windstorm, he said.

Because it was a weekend, there was much volunteer firefighter manpower on hand, he said.

Besides the problems posed by the June 6 storm, Chief Rivera noted that firefighters have been fairly busy for the past several months.

“It’s been a pretty busy year,” he said.