Tens of thousands of homes in Connecticut lost power Thursday night as severe thunderstorms swept the eastern seaboard. Downed trees and power lines closed roads in cities and towns across the state, and dozens of school districts have delayed starts or canceled classes Friday.
The winds hit speeds of around 90 miles an hour at times in the early hours of Friday morning, snapping trees and bringing down power lines.
Eversource and United Illuminating were reporting a combined total of about 90,000 customers without power at the peak of the storm.
Eversource said it was calling on additional aid from line crews from New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Kentucky as it worked to restore power.
But the utility company warned that some households may be looking at multi-day outages as it works to reach more remote areas where trees are still blocking roads.
Roads were reported closed due to downed trees in towns statewide, including Lisbon, East Lyme, Redding and Avon.
Eighty percent of homes were out of power in Marlborough, where resident Dick Paul said he woke up in the night to the sound of a tree falling in the road outside his home.
“It took down my cable and it took down my power but it also hit the telephone pole across the street," he told Connecticut Public Radio. "I think it blew the transformer because last night at 1:15 – big loud crash, big flash of light.”
Marlborough First Selectman Amy Traversa said she began fielding calls about what to do in the wake of the storm at about 2:30 in the morning.
“We’ve had not one or two big incidents or one or two big trees come down -- we’ve had a lot of trees come down all over town and it’s going to take a long time to clean up,” she said.
Traversa is urging residents not to remove any caution tape or traffic cones blocking off road closures. She said police are concerned that could lead to more poles with live wire coming down.
Early morning commuters on Metro North faced significant delays as service between Westport and New Haven was suspended due to overhead wire damage
By noon Friday the railroad said the damage had been repaired and it was operating close to its normal schedule.
Friday's weather is forecast to be mostly sunny but the blustery conditions will persist, with winds continuing to gust to around 40 miles-an-hour at times.
This story has been updated.
