<p>I sure hope you ALL get your power.</p>
<p>Are there still debris-littered streets a full week after this snow?</p>
<p>I haven’t been back to my side of the state since Thursday - but the reports I am hearing are that there are still low hanging wires and some partially blocked streets. While the schools may be open tomorrow, there is concern about the school buses being able to negotiate the roads. </p>
<p>We’re heading home today – I’ll bet that our street is not <em>clear</em> although power is restored. Most of the tree trash in the streets was on the sides sticking into the road, but not impacting power lines. I bet it has not been touched yet.</p>
<p>“Are there still debris-littered streets a full week after this snow?”</p>
<p>If news reports can be trusted (and sometimes they can’t) tree crews aren’t clearing streets until the power company confirms that downed lines aren’t live. This morning’s Courant shows an urban street closed due to live downed wires … 9 days after the storm (one example of why some officials are piqued). In our mid-Connecticut town all streets have been cleared … even the ones running through wooded areas. </p>
<p>[Hartford</a> Courant - Connecticut Breaking News, UConn Sports, Politics, Entertainment, Weather Forecast, Traffic and More. - Courant.com](<a href=“http://www.courant.com%5DHartford”>http://www.courant.com)</p>
<p>Here’s an article on “failure to manage expectations.” Humorous reading, if you’re not still in the dark (pun intended).</p>
<p>[Tolland</a> Town Manager - Courant.com](<a href=“http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-tolland-werbner-1106-20111105,0,2252317.story]Tolland”>http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-tolland-werbner-1106-20111105,0,2252317.story)</p>
<p>More than 10% of the total number of people in the state without power are in West Hartford and the numbers there aren’t budging - what is going on??</p>
<p>Just talked to a friend from NW CT (she’s at Starbucks) whose power is still out at home and her Selectperson says CL&P is having trouble figuring out why. I also read that one of the towns - was it Fairfield? hasn’t paid its bills to crews from Irene, so crews aren’t going in there. Is this true? I don’t really know!</p>
<p>Noon … day 9. Twelve hours until CL&P’s self-imposed deadline for restoring power to 99% of it’s customers. Original outage 762,000 customers (if memory serves). Current outage 112,426 (from [Hartford</a> Courant - Connecticut Breaking News, UConn Sports, Politics, Entertainment, Weather Forecast, Traffic and More. - Courant.com](<a href=“http://www.courant.com%5DHartford”>http://www.courant.com) ). That includes five towns with >50% without power, and another five towns with >40% lacking power. </p>
<p>[Outage</a> Map](<a href=“http://outage.cl-p.com/outage/outagemap.aspx]Outage”>http://outage.cl-p.com/outage/outagemap.aspx)</p>
<p>OK, the power company just updated its “promise date” for restoring electricity to CT customers. <a href=“http://www.ctnow.com/media/acrobat/2011-11/65903299.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ctnow.com/media/acrobat/2011-11/65903299.pdf</a> </p>
<p>Midnight Wednesday.</p>
<p>Oh, that is terrible. Prayers for those with no heat or light.</p>
<p>This is ridiculous - why do the people in this state after September have to put up with nonsense</p>
<p>CL&P updated it’s promise date?? SHOCKING. (where is my “sarcastic” font??)</p>
<p>My niece in Fairfield never lost power. I believe that they are served by a different utility.</p>
<p>Glad we got power back last night. Now CL&P says my town will be 100% restored by Wed. Will kids ever go back to school?</p>
<p>"My niece in Fairfield never lost power. I believe that they are served by a different utility. " - South of the Merritt didn’t get anywheres near as much snow - it never does.</p>
<p>My MIL in New Haven is served by the other company (United Illuminating). She lost power for a couple of days. It was out for a full week after the hurricane so this was an improvement. Friends in East Longmeadow, MA got their power back yesterday afternoon.</p>
<p>We went out this afternoon…and saw first hand what the linemen are dealing with. On one state route…at least 1/2 mile of downed wires…on the road. They had to replace the utility poles…trees and poles snapped on this stretch of road. Saw the same thing on the way to Bradley airport last night on a section of road. In both cases, those line crews were working to repair the extensive damage. </p>
<p>I would like to say…a shout out to all of the wonderful line crews from both CT and from other states who have been working to restore the power around the state. The damage is unbelievable. Yes, it’s taking time, but the damage was very extensive.</p>
<p>We also wondered how many supplies (new poles, new cable, new “parts”) had to be gotten…with this amount of damage, the replacement parts surely were not all readily available either.</p>
<p>It’s awful being without power…for sure…but these crews are trying, they really are. We saw FIFTEEN crews in one spot (likely sent from areas that are restored already like ours) working to try to repair the damage.</p>
<p>Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors, friends, and communities in this area who have opened their doors to those without power. If nothing else, it lets us know how lucky we are to have them.</p>
<p>One would think that the focus would be on densely populated areas, but apparently such is not the case. My father lives in the densest tract in West Hartford and they still haven’t made any progress. WHFTD now has 15% of all the state outages.</p>
<p>Doct, I fully agree with you about WH. There are, however, tons of trees down there…people have been very resistent to pruning or removing trees despite their proximity to power lines. </p>
<p>I truly hope your dad has power REALLY soon. My hope is that the work they are doing upstream will allow them to flip the switch for thousands to have power again.</p>
<p>Seriously, the damage is really unbelievable. It looks like a tornado went through.</p>
<p>I’ve mentioned before that S is a student at Univ of Hartford (which is actually in W.Hartford). He was notified today that they will not have classes again tomorrow. That’s 6 days of missed cla$$es for this storm, and 2 day$ from Irene.</p>
<p>Power to the freshmen dorms evidently comes from Hartford and was never lost. The upperclass dorms, however, receive power through Bloomfield and have been out since Saturday. CL&P had promised restoration by noon today, of course it didn’t happen.</p>
<p>I can’t help but wonder how 8 days of missed instructional time will be made up…</p>
<p>Just so much damage around - and I thought they were addressing the “big hits” early on, so the rest of the fixes are smaller and more difficult.</p>
<p>Again, I feel so fortunate. Hang in there, everyone. Any Minute Now…</p>
<p>Power was restored here at 10:30am this morning. Southern New England. 9 full days without power. Hope no one has to live through this again for this long.</p>
<p>Maybe we should have a new thread on generators, the type to get, how much to spend, etc! ;)</p>