Rain and Lightning—

Intense Storm Causes Electrical Outages

By Andrew Gorosko

An intense thunderstorm that struck Newtown midday on Saturday, August 21, brought torrential rain, vivid lightning, and electrical outages, thoroughly disrupting a late summer weekend.

There were no reported injuries related to the storm.

Scattered power outages extended to about 700 Connecticut Light & Power Company (CL&P) customers in town by 10 pm on August 21, said CL&P spokesman Chris Riley.

At 1:30 pm, there were approximately 160 customer outages. That number rose to 300 outages at 3:30 pm, peaking at 700 outages at 10 pm.

With CL&P work crews tackling the repair job, the outages dropped to about 200 at 3:30 am on Sunday, August 22, falling to 130 outages by 11:30 am. By 11 pm on August 22, almost all CL&P customers had their power restored, Mr Riley said.

A strong thunderstorm had also struck Newtown on the evening of Friday, August 20, resulting in about 600 customers losing their electricity between 6 and 9 pm, Mr Riley said.

Police Sergeant Douglas Wisentaner said that between 11:40 am and 2:51 pm on August 21, police responded to 13 false residential burglar alarms, which were triggered by storm-related conditions.

A section of Queen Street near Elizabeth Street was closed to traffic after a tree was discovered leaning on electric lines there, he said. Newtown Hook and Ladder firefighters responded to that incident at 2:58 pm. A CL&P work crew later corrected the problem, after which traffic flow was restored in the area later in the day.

Police reported no motor vehicle accidents related to the storm.

During the day, firefighters responded to storm-related false fire alarms on Queen Street at 12:27 pm, on Barnabas Road in Hawleyville at 1:08 pm, and on Nunnawauk Road at 1:11 pm.

At 5:27 pm, Sandy Hook firefighters went to a report of wires down on Black Bridge Road. They went on another call for wires down on Buttonball Drive at 8:20 pm.

Considering the intensity of the storm, the number of fire calls was relatively low, said Fire Marshal Bill Halstead. It was fairly uneventful in view of the magnitude of the storm, he said. There was much lightning and heavy rain, but comparatively few calls for help, he said. 

Robert Toth, who worked as the town road department supervisor during the storm, said, “I haven’t seen rain like that in years. The amount of rain was phenomenal.” The road crew received about a dozen calls for help, he said.

Town road crew members were called to remove a fallen tree from Walnut Tree Hill Road, as well to remove soil and gravel that had washed down onto that street from Lester Road and from a driveway near Lester Road, Mr Toth said.

Also, the road crew removed a fallen tree from Boulevard Extension, he said. A section of that street was closed to traffic for about one hour.

Mr Toth said the road crew went to some minor flooding which occurred in a private yard off High Rock Road after a drainage pipe there could not handle the heavy stormwater flow.

The day following the intense storm was marked by perfect summer weather.