Date: Fri 03-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

weather-storm

Full Text:

Newtown Spared The Worst Of Tuesday's Storm

A severe storm moved through southern Connecticut Tuesday evening, knocking

out power in scattered areas in Newtown and raining out the first night of the

St Rose Carnival.

Hardest hit was the area south of Newtown, from Trumbull to Long Island Sound.

Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) said that of 6,600 customers who lost power

in western Connecticut, half were in Greenwich. The rest were scattered

outages, including 91 customers who lost power in Newtown at about 9:30 pm.

"It was very quiet down in Newtown for a change," said Roz Wimbish, a

spokesperson for Connecticut Light & Power in Waterbury. "Most of the outages

during the storm were caused by lightening, high wind, heavy rain and fallen

branches."

Jim Crouch, chief of the town's emergency 911 dispatchers, agreed.

"There were only a couple of pole fires and wires burning reports -- in the

Pond Brook Road and Valley Field Road South areas," he said, looking at the

log book the day after the storm. When the storm came through Newtown, Mr

Couch was at home with his wife and two children on Castle Hill Road.

"When the hail started coming down during the second wave of the storm, we

went down into the basement," he said. "There had been television reports of

tornadoes that touched down in the New London area so we weren't taking any

chances. That's what comes from watching tornado disaster movies."

Total rainfall recorded at the weather center at Western Connecticut State

University in Danbury was 1.18 inches, according to meteorologist Gary Lessor.

But some parts of the state had more than four inches during the storm, he

said.

"The Danbury area is 6« inches above the normal for rainfall for this time of

year," Mr Lessor said. "We've already had enough rain to last until August."

The St Rose Carnival continues nightly from 7 to 11 pm through July 4.