CL&P Has Much

To Account For

To the Editor

It was no surprise that thousands of Newtown residents would be impacted by last week’s visit from Hurricane Irene. Most service providers, including town workers, police and fire departments, doctors, shopkeepers, schools, and tree cutters did their best to alleviate the inconveniences and provide announcements and information during the aftermath of the storm. However, one service provider — Connecticut Light and Power — was a huge disappointment to the citizens of Newtown and I suspect, to many others throughout the state.

In spite of more than seven days notice of the impending storm, CL&P was ill-prepared to cope with the massive power outages and Newtown became the Rodney Dangerfield of towns throughout the state. More than 68 hours after the storm, 82 percent of Newtown was still without power. There were no other towns of comparable population that had such a high percentage of outages at this stage of the response. Except for the clearing of the blocked road just south of the flagpole, you could drive around all parts of Newtown during the first three days and not see a single CL&P truck or work crew.

The lack of response in spite of ample warning is not the only thing CL&P needs to account for. During the first four days of the outage it was impossible to get an update on the progress or an ETA for a particular street. Repeated calls to their main number were met with recorded announcements that the customer service center was unable to answer the phone. So, besides their less than stellar performance in responding to downed wires, they could not even staff enough phone lines to tell you when they would do so.

One could argue that CL&P has compounded the effects of Irene because of their lack of sufficient inspections and tree trimming. Many, if not most, of the downed wires were due to overhanging branches that snapped or were blown down and not due to uprooting of trees. Regular maintenance of tree limbs that could impact overhead lines is supposed to be done throughout the year and it appears that CL&P failed in this area as well.

My hope is that this utility company has taken a lesson from the storm. That lesson should include: 1) having enough manpower and equipment ready to respond more quickly to a forewarned event, 2) improving maintenance procedures to prevent more overhanging limbs from hitting power lines, and 3) upgrading the phone system and staff to accommodate more callers to provide updated information to their customers. My fear is that none of this will happen and instead CL&P will be knocking on the door of the Public Service Commission in the near future requesting an increase in rates.

George Caracciolo

Schoolhouse Hill Road, Newtown                   September 1, 2011