Northeast snowstorm: Connecticut slowest to restore power, again
Connecticut residents were particularly hard-hit by power outages both during the Northeast snowstorm and hurricane Irene. With so many outages, the state has been slow to restore power.
Connecticut Light & Power workers tend to a high voltage power line in Windsor Locks, Conn., on Nov. 2. Over 90% of the town has been without power since the Oct. 29 snowstorm.
Jessica Hill/AP
Boston
The early winter snowstorm that hit the Northeast over Halloween weekend took a greater toll on power grids in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire than did hurricane Irene in August. And, as was the case then, the race to restore power has been slowest in Connecticut.
The storm track for hurricane Irene at least gave utilities regionwide a week to gather resources and call for backup crews from the Midwest and South. The October snowstorm, however, materialized in just a few days.
Some utilities have struggled more than others in the aftermath, according to data from the US Department of Energy's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability.
- At their peak, power outages in Connecticut hit 831,000 customers. As of Wednesday morning, power had been restored to about 284,000 of those customers – one-third of the peak number.
- In Massachusetts, 450,000 customers – almost two-thirds of the 670,000 peak – had had their power restored by Wednesday.
- New Hampshire was faring even better, with 227,000 customers – 72 percent of the 315,000 peak – restored by Wednesday.
Connecticut's performance in restoring power has been slower than its performance after Irene, which was criticized at the time. In the four days after Irene, 443,000 of the 702,154 outages were restored – about 63 percent. At the time, that was the lowest percentage of any state with outages from Irene.
Damage from the storm was far more extensive than forecast, reports Connecticut Light & Power, which oversees power delivery in about 150 towns statewide.
