More than 2500 Ledyard CL&P Customers in the Dark

As of 10:00 p.m., Friday, Nov. 2, 2012, 2,556 or 38 percent of Ledyard Connecticut Light & Power customers remained without power.

On Monday, during the height of Hurricane Sandy 67 percent of Ledyard CL&P customers were without power however that number rose as crews decended upon the town and turned off curcuits in order to fix lines.

Across the state 147,914 of 11 percent of CL&P customers do not have power including 60 percent of Ledyard and 30 percent of Groton customers.

Utility vice president Willliam Quinlan said at a briefing on Friday morning that 1,500 linemen had already been added to CL&Ps contingent of 400. By Saturday, he said, there should be about 2,100 additional linemen working to restore power to the many thousands that remain without it.

There were 22 crews working in Ledyard on Friday.

With central and northern Connecticut substantially restored, resources are now being concentrated in the Southwest and Southeast corner of the state, he said, particularly the Southwest, where "thousands upon thousands of trees are down."

Quinlan said he was on a conference call with President Barack Obama on Thursday and that the president identified New York, New Jersey, West Virginia and Connecticut as the states hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy.

Quinlan also said CL&P's parents company, Northeast Utilities, was helping to provide management teams and linemen from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. CL&P has also called on 100 retirees to help with the restoration. The projection of getting power restored to 98 percent of customers is still "Monday or Tuesday."

"I do want to reiterate something I've been saying consistently," he said. "These are our best estimates. They are not guarantees. ... But we're doing everything to sustain the momentum we have built so far."