CL&P Needs A Long-Term Solution

To the Editor:

In the past two months Connecticut and other states of New England have experienced two disastrous storms, the latest one being called an autumn nor’easter. In Newtown we received and average of 13 inches of snow, and 98 percent of the town had lost power the day the storm had occurred. More than a week later, homes in certain areas still remained without power.

Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P) was the least prepared company in all of New England. The state was notified a week in advanced and only prepared for the least amount of damage. CL&P is the state’s largest electricity provider, yet in the past decade they have cut their staff by 20 percent and rely on out-of-state companies to help them for major outages. Since they did not finish paying off their debts to three companies from Hurricane Irene, usual out-of-state companies were not offering a helping hand. New Jersey’s main power company had arranged for out-of-state crews to come in and help a week in advance, along with other states, making Connecticut the last state to regain full power restoration.

People of Connecticut were outraged as to what was taking so long to get their power back on. One flaw is that CL&P only inspects and cut trees every five years, and we are now the most forested we have been in over 20 years. People were also complaining that since we are the second highest paying rate for electricity in the nation, full restoration should not take this amount of time. Some people were lucky: “We are a newly developed area and our lines are underground. We have yet to lose power in over ten years,” says Amy of Sandy Hook. Others were not: “We have no generator, and well water. It became something of a hassle to live at home without power,” says Dennis of Newtown. Aside from the downed wires, and the cancellation of Halloween by the Fairfield County towns, children were also out of school for an entire week.

CL&P needs to come up with an immediate short-term solution for the upcoming winter. Inspecting trees and power lines and making necessary adjustments is a start, but they need a long-term solution as well. The state has the idea of getting all neighborhood power lines underground making outages an easier fix when necessary. It would save the state a lot of money in the long run for repairs, and the company would have less work to do in the end.

Nadine DeLoughy

16 Nelson Lane, Newtown                                      November 8, 2011