Nearly 200,000 Connecticut Light & Power customers are currently without power in the state, a number that may very well rise as Hurricane Sandy continues to hammer the region overnight.
Roughly every town in the state is seeing outages in some capacity, with the bulk of the power issues being seen in several coastal communities ranging from Branford to Stonington. Pockets of the state in the Quiet Corner and the Litchfield Hills are also in the dark.
In Newtown, the numbers are nearly as severe. Approximately 78 percent - or 8,550 customers - were without electricity as of 7:50 p.m.
In total, about 14 percent of the state is without electricity, due to high winds and heavy rainfall from Sandy.
CL&P Spokesman Mitch Gross said that, despite the high winds, there are crews out working on emergency restoration efforts right now.
“We’re at work handling as many issues as we can, while it’s still safe,” Gross said.
Federal regulations require that utility workers not be in the air working on power lines when wind speeds hit 40 mph. But Gross said that, since winds haven’t hit that threshold as of yet, there still are trucks in the CL&P system out on the road.
Some workers have been pulled off the lines in certain areas of the state, such as parts of Litchfield County, due to higher winds, Gross said.
In a message sent out to CL&P customers, the company reinforced that, if the power does go out, it may not return for an extended period of time.
If you experience an outage, please call 800-286-2000 or go to www.cl-p.com (via PC or mobile device) to report it.
“It's important that you report an outage even if you think your neighbors may have already reported it,” the message read. “The more information we have, the better we are able to improve our assessment of damage and make repairs.”
