High Winds Cause Scattered Power Outages

By Andrew Gorosko

As a nor’easter made its way up the Atlantic Coast on Tuesday, high winds cut across town, bringing down multiple trees and tree limbs across power lines, resulting in power outages that cut electrical service to 339 local Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) customers.

The five local volunteer fire companies were dispatched to 16 calls on Tuesday in which tree limbs came down, almost all of them onto electrical lines, according to the town’s emergency dispatch center.

Newtown Hook & Ladder, Dodgingtown, Hawleyville, Sandy Hook, and Botsford firefighters all were dispatched on calls involving damaged utility lines.

CL&P spokeswoman Mary Ingarra said Wednesday that scattered electrical outages reached their height at about 1:30 pm, when 339 local customers were without power. By 7:30 pm, virtually all electrical service was restored, she said. CL&P has about 10,600 customers in Newtown.

At its height at about noon, approximately 30,000 electric customers were without electricity statewide, she said.

Town firefighters responded to a rash of wind-related calls during a 72-minute period on Tuesday between 7:31 and 8:43 am, when they went to 12 wind-related calls. Those calls came from Eden Hill Road, Palestine Road, Sugar Lane, Taunton Lane, Flat Swamp Road, Pebble Road, Pond Brook Road, Birch Hill Road, Pootatuck Trail, Boggs Hill Road, and Cobblers Mill Road.

During the afternoon, such calls came in from Capitol Drive, Riverside Road, Knollwood Drive, and Head O’ Meadow Road.

Sandy Hook Fire Chief Bill Halstead said that at 8:43 am firefighters went to 47 Cobblers Mill Road because a tree had fallen onto a house. The caller had feared that the fallen tree had damaged a nearby propane line, but it did not, Chief Halstead said. The fallen tree caused minor damage to the house, he said. There were no injuries.

At about 3:17 pm, Sandy Hook firefighters responded to Riverside Road, near its intersection with Bancroft Road, where a tree had fallen down onto utility lines, causing electrical cables and telephone cables to catch fire, he said. When such an incident occurs, firefighters secure the area and create traffic detours, as needed, until repairs can be made.

Although winds on Tuesday reached gusted mightily at times, the extent of local power outages that day did not match service disruptions that occurred on October 16, when sustained high winds in the area caused 1,127 local electric customers to lose power.