Over 78,000 homes and businesses in Connecticut lost power after strong winds knocked down trees and power lines Wednesday night.
A nor'easter pounded the region and more than half of the electric customers in the town of Somers were without power.
More than 2,700 homes and businesses in Somers were without power after the storm -- including Jill Conklin’s. She runs a real estate business out of a house on Main Street.
But, on Thursday morning, she had a more immediate need than power – getting into her building to work – and clearing tree branches and limbs that were blocking her way.
“[The trees landed] across my office entrance. I can’t get into my office,” Conklin said. “It’s totally uprooted; there’s actually two trees down here.”
She said trees from her neighbor’s yard fell on the front lawn of her real estate business. So, she got to raking in the front yard to clean up the mess. But as she did that, there was a gust of wind.
“Move!” Conklin said to her daughter Korie.
She was worried about two more trees that she thought were ready to fall on the property.
“My daughter’s out here,” Conklin said. “She’s 7 years old and the wind – it’s a little sketchy out with those two trees hanging.”
There were downed lines and road closures in 30 different spots across Somers, according to First Selectman Bud Knorr. By the end of the business day, Knorr was growing impatient with the response from energy provider Eversource.
“I don't want to be discriminated against because we're here in the north-central part of Connecticut and we're little Somers,” Knorr said. “We have our problems, too. So, we're doing what we can do without Eversource's involvement, but it comes to the point right now where we need to have them show up and address some of these issues."
A spokesperson for Eversource emailed a written statement regarding Knorr’s complaint, pointing out that the damage was so widespread that it affected nearly every town that Eversource serves in the state.
“We have hundreds of line and tree workers working round-the-clock to repair the damage and additional people on the way from Michigan, Ohio, New York and Virginia,” said Eversource spokesperson Mitch Gross.
West Hartford
About 400 people were still in the dark in West Hartford by Thursday evening.
One particular incident at the corner of North Quaker Lane and Asylum Avenue saw two poles fall on power lines. Frontier Communications responded with a crew of lineman that showed up with two bucket trucks, two diggers, two vans, and a pickup truck.
“It’s been a little bit messy and there’s still six locations where roads are closed or partially closed due to downed wires or trees,” said West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor. “Everything we can do that doesn’t involve clearing wires, we have done.”
Cantor mentioned that the job of managing the downed wires belonged to Eversource.
