Community Corner
CL&P's Response In Stamford and Beyond
A review of CL&P's handling of its mass-outages following last weekend's storm.
A week after the surprise "Noreaster" snownstorm that left over 830,000 Connecticut residents without power, over 360,000 Connecticut residents still haven't had their power restored, leading locals to wonder if CL&P is dealing well with a difficult situation or just performing poorly.
"Over 200 CL&P line and tree crews are working to restore power to customers affected by outages and the company is in the process of securing additional help...as was predicted, the heavy, wet snow is weighing down the trees and creating issues across the state," CL&P Al Roy manager of Emergency Management said in a Sunday press release. "Our crews and support staff continue to respond as the storm moves through and we are communicating with town and state officials to coordinate efforts...we appreciate our customers patience."
By this point, 8% of Stamford , which was considered a low percentage in comparison to its neighboring towns. On Monday, CL&P stated that the "damage from the storm was far more extensive than forecasted," despite their predictions of heavy, wet snow and its impact on power lines and CL&P's own grids.
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"The Connecticut Department of Transportation estimates that tree damage is five times greater than Irene. Peak outages were about 831,000 throughout the electrical system. As of 8:45 p.m., service has been restored to more than 110,000 customers," CL&P stated in a Monday press release.
By this point, much of Connecticut had been without power for at least 48 hours.
Find out what's happening in Stamfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"Many areas of the state, particularly in the northwest and north central parts of Connecticut (generally north and west of Interstate 84) still have roads blocked and areas inaccessible to crews, slowing assessment processes and restoration efforts," CL&P said on Monday.
By Tuesday, the Stamford Advocate reported that Gov. Malloy himself was "underwhelmed" with CL&P's response to the October snowstorm. Since Tuesday, CL&P became sparse with press releases, and CL&P customers seeking to gather more information from CL&P about outages received only voice messages when attempting to contact CL&P.
Several Stamford neighborhoods which regained power on Monday lost power again for early eight hours on Tuesday.
"Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) and mutual aid crews continued making progress on Thursday, restoring power to over 572,000 customers since last weekend's snowstorm. As of 9:30 p.m., about 361,000 CL&P customers remain without power," a late-Thursday CL&P press release states.
CL&P currently estimates that Stamford's power restoration is over 99% complete, with only 73 homes still without power almost a week after the onset of the surprise Noreaster storm.
However, some Fairfield County regions, such as Ridgefield and Redding, are reported to still have customer outage percentages as high as 55%.
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