At a news conference Saturday, Bill Quinlan, vice president of emergency management for CL&P, said the pace of restoring power in Fairfield County after superstorm Sandy has been "very strong."
Speaking at a staging area for restoration crews and equipment in Sherwood Island State Park in Westport, Quinlan said his company's quick response was due to having many resources in place before the storm struck.
Quinlan said his company's initial priority was to deal with public health and safety issues, including restoring power to hospitals. Beyond that, he said, the goal was to restore power to its customers "as quickly as we can.
The company intends to have power restored to all polling stations by Sunday so there is no impact on Tuesday's elections, he said.
Quinlan said CL&P's parent company, Northeast Utilities, has brought in crews from its Massachusetts company, so, "There's been a significant infusion of management, talent and resources, which is going to help us drive this restoration forward."
He said there a currently more than 3,000 line workers in the field and more 1,500 tree workers.
"We're going to continue to add resources necessary to conclude this just as quickly as possible for our customers," Quinlan said. He said CL&P forcecasts that restoration of power will be "substantially complete" by Monday or Tuesday.
Quinlan said a rumor that restoration crews are leaving Connecticut to work in New York and New Jersey are untrue. He said the public may see crews passing through Connecticut to work in those states, but none of the crews designated to work here will be leaving until restoration is complete.
Tonight--just a day later from Gordon Josleoff "There are still somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 Westport homes without power tonight almost a week after Westport began to feel the effects of Storm Sandy. “Despite the influx of additional CL&P crews into Westport, restoration progress has been unacceptably slow. I personally conveyed that message in the strongest terms a few hours ago in a meeting with CL&P President William Herdegen here in the EOC." CL&P has made their commitment, 98% of all their customers have power. Not 98% of those that lost power have it restored. That would be the right metric. Westport has about 20% WITHOUT power. That is a metric we did not want to read almost 7 days later.
That said, it would be nice to know why western FF county is the last to get restoration really cooking. Rest of State of CT looks pretty squared away. Overall this seems a far better coordinated restoration than what occurred last year, though I for one would have liked my area of CT (Wilton) better served. Maybe it's b/c we have resources and wealth that other areas don't that causes us to be lower priority. How about just saying so... That would be better than leaving up to our imaginations as to why we're going last... Thanks CL&P - better than last year. It's a start - and a big one. StillIntheDarkinWilton
Last October 2011 after the freak snowstorm I was without power for a total of 10 days, with temps INSIDE my house no higher than 41 degrees. I cannot believe the amount of bellyaching from people who have been without power for much less time than that. Obviously not a one of them paid any attention to the warnings beforehand.
that's ok on day 1, not day 7! this was the proof positive that coordination at the CL&P level is a joke. Operations center is mismanaged...year after year. Ultimately this is the responsibility of CL&P senior management. let the heads roll.
that's ok on day 1, not day 7! this was the proof positive that coordination at the CL&P level is a joke. Operations center is mismanaged...year after year. Ultimately this is the responsibility of CL&P senior management. let the heads roll.