Power Restoration Effort is Short-Handed

Connecticut’s electrical companies are working around the clock to restore power to the record number of customers who lost it as a result of Irene this weekend.

The problem, they say, is that there are simply not enough work crews to restore service to all customers across the state in a timely manner, and that some customers should be prepared to be without electricity for a week or more.

“The number one issue we have is getting the resources here,” said Jeff Butler, president and chief operations officer of Connecticut Light & Power, which represents the bulk of the state’s electrical customers. “We’re working 16-hour shifts with an eight-hour rest period.”

Butler was joined by John Prete, a vice-president for United Illuminating, and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy at a press conference on power restoration efforts late Monday afternoon.

Butler said that CL&P currently had 800 two-man crews working across the state on an almost constant basis to restore power in affected areas, and another 100 crews were enroute to the state to assist. He said the company was still searching for available crews as far away as Seattle or British Columbia.

About 75 percent of the crews began working around 7 a.m. Monday, and would continue to work for a 16-hour shift. Another 25 percent of the workforce began working at 3 p.m. and would work a 16-hour shift until relieved by the next morning crew Tuesday morning.

“We do have 24-hour coverage and we’ll have that coverage until we get all customers restored,” Butler said.  

At the peak of the storm, roughly 672,000 CL&P customers, or more than half of the customers the company services throughout the state, were without power. Butler said CL&P had restored power to about 200,000 customers as of Monday afternoon, but 570,000 customers statewide still remained without power.

Linemen for CL&P

In Ledyard, officials were advised by CL&P that power for many would not be restored until the weekend. Given that estimate, the decision was made not to have students start school until Tuesday, Sept. 6 (Sept. 5 is Labor Day).

Linemen Pete Abrahamsen and Justin Martin were parked in their utility truck at the intersection of Route 214 and Colonel Ledyard Highway in Ledyard Center Monday afternoon, waiting to be joined by other crews from down the road toward Gales Ferry.

Abrahamsen and Martin work for M.J. Electric Co., which was contracted by CL&P. They said crews have been working all day with a tree-cutting outfit from Wisconsin, trying to restore power along 214.

Asked how long before power is restored, Abrahamsen said that information is above his labor grade. But he hoped to be finished in Ledyard by Friday, he said, because he has plans to take his parents to Maine for Labor Day weekend. 

He said utility workers are staying in a Best Western about 30 minutes away. "It has power," he said.

Cost of the cleanup

Mayor Fred B. Allyn said Monday that he hopes to have some of the cleanup costs reimbursed by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Administration. But he recalled earlier reimbursements were a long time coming.

After the flooding of 2010, for example, Allyn said it was seven or eight months before the town received any money from FEMA. 

Asked how quickly the town is eating through the hurricane cleanup account, Allyn said there is no such account per se. "You can't budget for this sort of thing," he said. 

Allyn ordered Town Hall to be closed for a second straight day on Tuesday. "It's amazing that we're all become so dependent on technology that we can't do our jobs without it," he said.