Electricity Restored, Officials Reflect On Irene

By Andrew Gorosko

By the morning of Wednesday, September 7, Connecticut Light & Power Company (CL&P) had restored electric service to all its local customers who had lost power during Tropical Storm Irene and its aftermath, allowing thousands of residents to return to a more normal way of life.

Following the August 28 storm, as much as 82 percent, or 9,019 of CL&P’s 10,874, of local customers were without electricity.

The damage caused by the storm resulted in school officials postponing the first day of classes for the 2011-12 school year from August 30 to September 6. Also, the annual Labor Day Parade was postponed from September 5 to October 9.

The challenges posed by the storm and its aftermath required residents to exercise more tolerance and patience in their lives than normal, said First Selectman Pat Llodra.

“It was very difficult,” Mrs Llodra said. “The scope and scale of this was greater than what Newtown had ever experienced.” The storm’s effects were widespread through town, she said, adding, “Mother Nature is indiscriminate in her destructive pattern.”

Mrs Llodra said she will be speaking with CL&P officials soon to discuss the lessons learned from the storm.

The utility company needs to have a larger workforce available for such situations, she said.

Also, Mrs Llodra said she plans to explain to CL&P officials the particular needs of the town based on its large geographic area and its difficult terrain. The developed areas along Lake Zoar pose special challenges based on their narrow roadways, she added.

CL&P’s plans were inadequate in terms of getting electric service restored in a timely manner, Mrs Llodra said. The firm needs to be able to mobilize an electric restoration response to major storms more quickly and more effectively, she said. Also, town officials need to be better informed by the utility about the progress of restoration work, she said.

Mrs Llodra urged that CL&P, the town, and local families review their experiences during the storm in terms of making better plans for such future events.

Early on the morning of Tuesday, September 6, virtually all local CL&P customers had regained their power, but then another rain storm hit, resulting in about 180 more power outages caused by falling trees, Mrs Llodra noted.

CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross said the firm will participate in state hearings scheduled for a review of the company’s performance in restoring electric service through the state after Tropical Storm Irene.

“The next step for us is gathering facts and doing an internal review,” he said. “We look forward to participating in the [hearing] process.”

The firm wants to learn how perform better in the next serious incident that causes widespread power outages, he said.

CL&P realizes that it needs to have better communications regarding the progress of restoration work, he said. “There will be many discussions,” he said.

“We’ve heard positive and we’ve heard negative,” he said, regarding CL&P’s response to the widespread outages caused by the storm.

Tropical Storm Irene caused the most outages statewide that CL&P had ever experienced, he said. About 672,000 of CL&P’s 1.2 million customers lost electricity at the height of the power outages.

Local Lessons

Town Health Director Donna Culbert said that hundreds, if not thousands, of local residents worked to help one another when they were confronted by extended power outages. Such cooperation forms the basis of people getting through such difficult situations, she said.

“It was really challenging,” she said.

In the future, the town needs to consider the potential for power outages that last ten days in terms of its emergency planning, she said.

Also, the town needs to formulate a better list of people who need to be helped during extended outages, she said. That list would include the names of isolated people who are dependent upon electricity for medical reasons, she said.

Bill Halstead, the town’s emergency management director, said that the lessons learned during the storm and its aftermath will prove useful in dealing with such emergencies in the future.

“There’s a lot of issues with CL&P that are going to be worked on,” he said. “They need to formulate a better plan for major emergencies.”

Mr Halstead credited town agencies for their performance during the extended power outages.

The town’s many Code Red automated telephone calls made to inform residents of progress in the electric restoration proved most useful, he said. The town places such calls to more than 9,000 local telephone numbers.

Rob Sibley, the town deputy director of planning and land use, said that the storm destroyed one building, caused major damage to one structure, caused minor damage to two structures, and also affected ten other structures. Mr Sibley is the town’s liaison to the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). (See related story on FEMA’s response and available financial aid to residents affected by the storm.)

Public Works Director Fred Hurley said that the storm’s damage was so widespread, more than 133 local roads needed to be reopened to traffic after experiencing fallen trees and/or dropped utility lines. About 180 trees or tree sections fell onto local roads, according to Mr Hurley.

Mr Hurley said he hopes that CL&P again uses a power restoration system that it formerly used in such situations because that scheme was more effective than the plans used in Tropical Storm Irene.

“This hopefully was a wake-up call” for residents in terms of the disruptiveness of a major storm, he said. “It could have been much worse,” he said.

Maureen Will, town director of emergency communications, said, “It’s one for the history books.”

Town workers were under much pressure during the storm and its aftermath and performed well.

The experience gained in dealing with the damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene will better prepare people for such events in the future, she said.