Illuminating An Otherwise

Dark Week

To the Editor:

Good riddance Irene, but thank goodness for Pat Llodra.

Thank you Pat, for making us feel we were not being kept in the dark, despite being without lights for six days last week. And thank you for your caring touch.

A couple evenings after the storm, in our quest to find running water, we visited the municipal center, one of the few buildings in town with power at the time. There we found First Selectman Llodra on the phone, urgently demanding more crews and faster attention from whomever she was speaking. She was refusing to take no for an answer and intently focused on her negotiations to bring more and faster restoration resources to Newtown.

At the time, we did not want to interrupt, so we simply waved a hello, picked up a copy of the “Fact Sheet” detailing what, where, and when we could access things like showers and ice and scurried off to use the restrooms. It’s surprising how a little running water, soap, and fresh paper towels can change one’s outlook on things.

As we were leaving, Pat was also on her way out to check on the seven crews working around town on that Tuesday evening. She could have kept heading for the door, but instead, flagged us down and spent a few minutes asking how we were making out and providing us a quick update, in addition to the detailed “Code Red” updates we were retrieving from our nonworking home phone’s voice mail. She was, all at once, concerned, kind, informative, and professionally in-command; all of which we were very thankful for.

We believe Pat’s 24/7 post-Irene vigils put Newtown back online faster than surrounding towns with comparable problems after the storm. We saw her in action and were totally impressed with her aggressive handling of our health, safety, and well-being necessities, in the absence of 21st Century conveniences. We also found her use of the Code Red system to inform us of where to access services and provide running updates as to where and when progress was occurring to be very reassuring.

Again, our thanks to Pat and her team, for illuminating an otherwise dark week.

Luisa & Mitch Bolinsky

3 Wiley Lane, Newtown                                           September 4, 2011