Wallingford Electric Division working on power outages; 3,200 customers or 13 percent

As published online at MyRecordJournal.com

By Laurie Rich Salerno
Record-Journal staff
lsalerno@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2235
Twitter:@LaurieSalernoRJ

WALLINGFORD - At the height of outages Monday night, 3,200 customers or 13 percent of the town was without power, but as of 6 a.m. today that number had lowered to 1,270 -- about 5 percent, according to Public Utilities Director George Adair.

"We feel very fortunate," Adair said of the storm's damage relative to that of the state's shoreline. "We have adequate forces to address what's here."

Adair said he anticipates that by this afternoon the outage rate will be down to 400 customers and that by midnight Wednesday nearly all customers will be restored.

Beyond that, there may be some individual property owners with damaged equipment that cannot be reconnected in that time frame, and may take longer.

The peak outage rate was less than that of each of last year's major storms, with 5,000 outages reported during Hurricane Irene, and 4,000 in the October nor'easter.

On Monday night, Adair said outages were not confined to one area, but were spread throughout town.

"The wind was sporadic and varied tremendously by location. It was just here and there," Adair said.

Chimney Hill Road sustained some of the greatest damage, Adair said, with several large trees down. Line and tree crews will be working today on that section of town.

Monday night Town Hall and the Fire Department in the town center lost power, but were brought up that night.

Adair said his crews -- 6 of the town's regular line crews, three out-of-town line crews, and 6 tree crews from a contractor -- focused more on safety Monday night than restoration, dealing with downed wires. Staff also worked to isolate damages that took down large swaths of customers to bring others back on.

Two crews stayed on overnight, and three more pre-ordered out-of-town crews are expected to arrive Tuesday. The division will not be asking for any mutual aid crews, Adair said.

For customers who haven't yet reported an outage, they should call 203-294-2020 during business hours and 203-265-5055 after hours. Those who can access the internet can look at wallingfordelectric.com for more information on their service.