Nearly Half of the Town Has Power, CL&P Says

Five days after the October snow storm wreaked havoc on the region, nearly half of the town has had its power restored as 14 line and six tree crews have been assigned to restoration work in Newtown.

Wednesday saw the greatest one-day improvement as the number of outages shrunk by a third to 6,300 homes and business or 57-percent of Newtown as of midnight. Church Hill Road has been fully powered up as has Main and South Main streets.

"We are moving toward restoration now," First Selectman Pat Llodra said.

While the majority of the work is moving toward restoring electricity to homes and neighborhoods, many roads remain littered with remnants of the storm.

Officials said Wednesday that enough road clearing has been done that every house can be reached in an emergency, though 18 roadways have an obstruction of some kind – tree or wire damage – that is partially blocking travel lanes.

Elizabeth Bogdanoff, 51, disputes that characterization, saying that her road is impassable and she has been prevented from reaching her home on Obtuse Road South since the storm hit. Downed trees and transformers prevent her from safely traveling to her home, she said.

"Not unless I take my life into my hands," she said.

Officials said many hazards exist on the roadways, such as on Plumtrees, and workers are trying to address them.

Rob Merrifield, who lives on Twist Hill Road, said that crews arrived Wednesday to clear the downed trees, wires and poles blocking his roadway.

"I'm elated," he said. "We've had people walking through the debris field."

The road hazards are the primary reason officials said they canceled school for this week. Classes are expected to resume Monday, although students don't have to go to school on Tuesday because it's Election Day and a professional development day.

School officials said they don't plan on holding classes that day because using school gymnasiums and cafetoriums as polling places will disrupt school operations, including lunch and bus drop-off and pick-up times.

CL&P estimates that 99-percent of Newtown will have electricity by Sunday, eight days after the storm hit the region. Following Tropical Storm Irene, – although toward the tail end of that period, another storm hit the area.