To the Editor:

When Tropical Storm Isaias blew through our community on the afternoon of August 4th, it had already been tracked by meteorologists for the better part of a week. We also knew that we in Newtown were going to have significant tree damage and power outages. What we did not know: how ineffectual the management of Eversource, our only utility company option, would be in accepting and accurately acknowledging street-by-street outages; providing our town leadership with accurate estimated times of restoration; sending trucks in from out of state to help us; and restoring us to power. Like the old MASH episode where the 4077th orders a thousand vials of penicillin and gets a crate of rectal thermometers instead, one hand didn’t know what the other hand was doing, and there was no accurate list being kept of streets that were out, restored, and darkened a few hours later. I began keeping and posting a list on the Newtown Friends Unite closed Facebook page, to turn street reporting back over to us, the residents: no one knows who is affected better than we do.

As a journalist and an author, I took to Twitter to see how our state leaders in Washington were covering the storm. After a week of no power and water in a pandemic and a heat wave, I was stunned to see virtually nothing from the leaders who represent us. I expected each of the politicians who sat with me in the back row at Trinity Church a year ago to send off Team 26 on their cycling ride in memory of those killed in Sandy Hook and the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting to be here to survey the damage, and to give us a firm plan for undoing the monopoly contract that they handed to Eversource, rendering us (literally) powerless. It’s not enough to hear them say they are shocked and livid. Eversource is a significant donor to both parties; this is public information. Neither party would hold their feet to the fire, lest they endanger donations. Promises are made in politics all the time: it’s the nature of the game. And it is we, the community, who always suffer.

Our state leadership’s response has not been bad; it has been reprehensible. Why? Because they handed Eversource their contract. What could they possibly say? Our elected leaders in Washington and Hartford who represent Connecticut and the community of Newtown must be reminded: you work for us. Do not just come here on the anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting to put your arms around us and promise change; do not use us for a photo opportunity.

Come when we need you to see the damage you have had a hand in by your actions and by your silence.

Come to show us that we can trust you to effect change. Because you must.

Elissa Altman

Webster Place, Newtown August 13, 2020