Hyvue Drive Residents Among Those Stuck For Days

For days now, the Dodgingtown residents of Hyvue Drive have been stuck in their neighborhood unable to get out except for treks through people’s backyard, and for the lucky ones, a drive across their yards to escape.

Things were to have changed Tuesday but by sunset it was clear the road wasn’t going to be opened by the town or utility crews. After receiving assurances from a utility worker the wires weren’t live, some neighbors got together and cleared a path that would allow for some traffic to get through. It wasn’t ideal but necessary, particularly on a street completely cut off from the rest of the town and with one woman who is eight months pregnant, residents said.

“I feel better now that I can drive out,” said Brad Eggleston, 45, who was among those forced to take matters into their own hands.

His family had been cut off from the rest of the town since Tropical Storm Irene hit Sunday and a line of trees brought down poles and wires blocking any road access. The neighbors coped by depending on one another for essential services with one resident offering to bring gasoline for others.

But in some cases, life and finances forced residents to take chances.

Dora Stenhouse, 30, is eight months pregnant and hiked through the woods at one point to get out of the neighborhood, and then later borrowed a neighbor's vehicle because she said she couldn’t afford to miss work. Stenhouse works at a bank.

Another resident, Adele Dominicus, 44, walked through several neighbors yards and had her sister pick her up just so she could get dinner Tuesday night.

“We’re completely blocked off,” she said of the neighborhood. “It’s a disaster.”

The town had pledged to open up Hyvue Drive by sunset Tuesday but it was clear the amount of work facing the crews was overwhelming.

Some roads such as Scudder, Taunton Hill and Riverside roads were made passable Tuesday night but others that had been on a list provided by the town, such as Hyvue and Birch Hill roads, weren’t cleared by nightfall. In some cases, the town could do little because with power lines being involved, only CL&P can do the work.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley had said the goal was to get the list of 30-plus impassable roads cleared by sunset Wednesday. But with CL&P and the town already behind schedule, it was unclear whether that would happen.

Town officials said the utility company only made two line crews available to them for clearing Tuesday while four others went to work on Main Street, which holds a primary circuit for the downtown area.

CL&P has said that .