The Weather Adds Some Excitement To Election Night

By Steve Bigham

It was supposed to be a relaxed election night for First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, but it turned out to be rather tense. Running unopposed, the first selectman was assigned to simply gather the results of other races. But when the storm hit, he was forced into action, working to kick-start the town’s emergency services.

“It was a dull election season up until the last hour. Then all hell broke loose,” he said. “It was an exciting finish.”

Trees and power lines fell all over town Tuesday as winds up to 60 mph whipped through the streets. There were a total of 39 fire calls over the period of about 2.5 hours, 14 roads were blocked and hundreds were without power.

Mr Rosenthal said he was disappointed in the less than speedy reaction of Connecticut Light & Power. It wasn’t so much the fact that power remained out into Wednesday, but more CL&P’s lack of cooperation in turning off downed lines to allow highway crews to remove fallen trees. One tree, which fell across Glen Road at about 8:45 pm Tuesday, was still lying in the road Wednesday morning. Nine roads remained closed the morning after the storm.

Firefighters feared they might lose a house on Flat Swamp Road after arcing wires inched closer and closer to the home. Again, he said, CL&P was slow in responding.

“I can’t understand why they weren’t better prepared,” Mr Rosenthal said.

CL&P reported 80,000 area customers without power late Tuesday night.

By 8:50 pm Tuesday, Democrats, including Herb’s son, Dan, were still awaiting the election results at Democratic headquarters, 1 Glen Road. Mr Rosenthal, along with Selectman Joe Bojnowski, finally reached the center of Sandy Hook after several delays. As they turned the corner onto Glen Road, a transformer exploded right in front of them. “I just remember pulling in and seeing this big flash,” he said. Then a large tree fell across the road, knocking down power lines and leaving the headquarters in the dark. Democrat Jay T. Gill had to find a ride home because his car remained covered with “live” wires.

Newtown’s highway department was called in at about 8:30 pm Tuesday to remove trees and address flooding in low lying areas.