A top Connecticut utility regulator said Wednesday that Eversource misclassified Tropical Storm Isaias as it bore down on the Northeast, estimating it would cause half as many outages as it ultimately did, leaving the utility unready to respond to the scope of the devastation left in the storm’s wake.
Gov. Ned Lamont is now calling for an investigation into Eversource and United Illuminating’s handling of the storm so far, including their leaders’ preparation ahead of its arrival, while pressuring the utilities to immediately scale up the number of repair crews working across the state.
More than 720,000 customers were left without power immediately after the storm and, despite some initial repairs Wednesday, utility companies are telling state officials it could be between five and 10 days before power is fully restored given the severity of damage to wires, sources said.
The number of those without power has since dropped by about 100,000: By 8:50 a.m., Thursday, the number of customers in the dark was closer to 620,000; 540,417 of them were Eversource customers and 80,069 were in United Illuminating’s territory to the south.
“We’ve got to get this state up and operating again with a working electric system and I want that done overwhelmingly by the end of the week,” Lamont demanded outside Eversource headquarters in Berlin. “I’m going to try to hold people accountable as best I can.”
Lamont announced the request for an investigation by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority after meeting with Eversource CEO James Judge while the company still grappled with more than 600,000 outages late Wednesday afternoon. The governor said he left the meeting wanting to hear more urgency from the utility.
Several officials who participated in a massive emergency operations call earlier this week said Eversource officials were almost dismissive of the storm and regulators pointed out that United Illuminating was more prepared for the impact in advance based on paperwork filed Monday by each utility ahead of the storm.
United Illuminating filed that it was preparing for a so-called Level 3 storm, whereas Eversource filed paperwork that it was preparing for a lesser Level 4 storm event with no more than 375,000 outages, documents show.
“It’s clear it was on the high end of a Level 3 event,” PURA Chairwoman Marissa Paslick Gillett said.
Eversource President of Regional Electric Operations Craig Hallstrom said the utility did not have a specific estimate of how many outages could occur before the storm. He appeared alongside Lamont at a briefing outside the utility’s headquarters, without Judge, to answer questions about the response from the news media.
“We fully understand the magnitude of this event and the urgency we need to take in order to get our power back,” Hallstrom said.
Eversource officials defended their pre-storm classification late Wednesday night, which was based on guidance from external experts on the storm’s track late last week, Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross. The utility reclassified the storm as its track changed the models dictated, Gross said.
Lamont, who declared a state of emergency as he toured storm damage in central Connecticut, was unsatisfied with the response so far, however, and prodded both utilities to make faster work of the cleanup and repairs. His disaster declaration allows the state to take advantage of resources and assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Administration and the Connecticut National Guard.
With the destruction from downed trees and power lines in every community in Connecticut, Eversource was reporting more than 586,000 outages Wednesday night, while United Illuminating, which serves residents in southern Connecticut, was reporting more than 85,000.
Utility officials said Isaias ranks as the third-most damaging storm in recent memory. The total outages from Tuesday’s storm were higher than Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and just below Hurricane Irene in August 2011 and the subsequent October snowstorm.
Officials with Eversource said crews are still working to assess the extent of the damage to the electrical infrastructure, but it will take at least several days to restore power to all customers.
“We’re asking our customers to prepare for multiple days without power,” Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said. Damage is “extensive, especially as you move further west.”
The company will work with towns to get essential services restored first, such as hospitals, fire stations and water treatment plants, Gross said. And the company will work to make repairs that will get service restored to the most people.
“We go to work with the goal of restoring the largest number of customers we can at a single time,” he said.
Eversource officials said the utility had 450 line crews working as of Wednesday, but that number will grow. State Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, reported that the company had told him it was bringing in 1,000 crews from Canada to assist.
United Illuminating was also warning residents that it could take several days to restore power.
“We saw damage across our electric system, in all of the 17 towns and cities we serve, with more than 1,600 outage-causing events and more than 1,000 wires down that for safety reasons crews must address,” said Tony Marone, UI’s president and CEO. “We planned for this storm and marshalled significant restoration resources ahead of its arrival. We appreciate everyone’s patience as our crews work diligently, putting safety first, to get power restored to every customer.”
Along with power outages, residents across the state were reporting cable and internet issues. In West Hartford, where about half the town still had power, many residents, working from home during the pandemic, were reporting that their internet connection was down, officials said.
“At this time, it appears most issues are commercial power-related, and services should be restored for our customers as power comes back on,” said Kristen L. Roberts, a Comcast spokesperson. “In some cases, there is damage related to high winds and fallen trees, and our technicians are working to restore services as quickly as it’s safe to do so.”
Local leaders criticize Eversource response
Elected officials and local leaders Wednesday were already finger-pointing at Eversource, the state’s dominant electric utility, saying they were unprepared for the storm. The criticism comes on top of customers’ and legislators’ outrage over recently approved rate hikes that have since been suspended while regulators investigate.
Sen. Norm Needleman, an Essex Democrat and chairman of the legislature’s energy committee, also called for an investigation into Eversource’s response to the storm.
Local leaders said communication with Eversource was lacking and that public works crews were standing by waiting to clear roads but could not do so until utility crews arrived to de-energize downed wires.
One central Connecticut municipal leader said Eversource didn’t even dispatch assessment teams until Wednesday morning.
The Eversource liaison with that community provided only spotty information all Tuesday night and was working from home without power or internet access, the official said.
The utility was not following its usual practice of coordinating with local public works departments about which transmission lines to repair and when, the official said.
A furious Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim said Wednesday that United Illuminated told him not to even call back when he complained about the lack of restoration to critical locations in his city, including senior living centers. He and other city leaders lambasted the utility at a briefing, calling the UI response criminally negligent and discriminatory.
Ganim said he has ordered the city attorney to coordinate with the state’s attorney’s office to consider whether the utility’s lack of response might constitute racial discrimination, given the city’s majority-minority resident demographics.
“It’s my obligation to fight for you and for them to say don’t call this line back … that is unacceptable,” Ganim said. “It shows a reckless disregard for life.”
Streets like a battle zone
No towns or cities were spared damage as the powerful tropical storm sped through Connecticut, ripping down trees and shredding electrical wires in a few short hours Tuesday afternoon and evening. Almost 40 towns were reporting that more than 90% of homes and businesses were without power more than 24 hours later.
At least one person was killed during the storm by a falling tree. Raymond Schultz, a 66-year-old Naugatuck man, died just after 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, during the height of the storm, when he tried to remove branches from in front of his vehicle on Andrew Mountain Road and was struck by another falling tree, police said.
Five people were injured in Lisbon when trees landed on a city bus and on the road at the height of the storm, a fire official said.
The bus was headed from the Lisbon Landing shopping center to Norwich about 3:30 p.m. when it stopped short for a tree in the road, said John Cingranelli, deputy chief. At the same time, a large tree fell on the bus.
Of the 14 people on the bus, five suffered injuries from the bus’ sudden braking, Cingranelli said. They were taken to Backus Hospital in Norwich to be treated for minor injuries.
Jim Marpe, the first selectman of Westport, said Wednesday he believes the damage in his town of roughly 28,000 is among the worst in the state.
He saw a video of what looked like a waterspout at Compos Beach, a town beach, and fallen trees at the municipal golf course looked as though they could have been thrown to the ground by some sort of twister.
Westport Fire Chief Robert Yost, who also is the town’s emergency management director, said wind gusts were as strong as 63 mph in the Fairfield County town, and 97% of Eversource customers lost power, putting it on par with Superstorm Sandy in its effect on the town, minus the flooding.
Roads in Burlington looked like a battle zone Tuesday evening, and were only marginally better by Wednesday morning.
Just a couple of minutes away, Canton’s business district and the Colinsville village center were doing business as usual. Several shops and cafes even had lawn signs and outdoor restaurant seating in place.
But a few miles farther east on Route 44, the busy commercial corridor in Simsbury and Avon was dark, although the Big Y supermarket had generators and was open, Avon Town Manager Brandon Robertson said. Eastbound traffic backed up from Route 167 — where the traffic light was out — all the way to the closed La Trattoria restaurant.
Avon was hard-hit by the storm and 98.5% of the town remained without power Wednesday evening and about nine roads remain blocked by fallen trees while Avon public works teams waited for Eversource crews to deal with downed wires before tackling the tree work, Robertson and Jim Rio, the town’s director of police service said.
“Avon really got hammered,” Robertson said. Six houses had trees on them and a pickup truck was damaged by a falling tree, but no injuries were reported, Robertson said.
Farmington police Chief Paul Melanson described the damage to trees and the electrical infrastructure in town as “massive” and more than 78% of the town was out of power Wednesday afternoon.
“We’ve been greatly impacted by this,” he said. “The majority of our residents are without power and there’s significant and extraordinary damage to the electrical system with large trees that are blocking roadways with power lines across them.”
Outage numbers in each of those numbers barely changed throughout Wednesday, according to the utility’s public outage dashboard.
State parks were closed Wednesday and more than half will remain closed Thursday for cleanup.
At the storm’s height, 144 emergency calls for service in Hartford were on hold waiting for an available dispatcher, Hartford Fire Chief Reginald Freeman said. Police also called in 33 additional officers during the storm to stand guard at downed, energized power lines and those officers were still on duty 24 hours later waiting for Eversource to respond, he added.
“We’re doing everything in our power to make sure our residents can get back to a semblance of normalcy,” Freeman said.
The city is looking into the demand for a temporary shelter.
“We are particularly concerned about residents who rely on electricity to meet their medical needs,” said Vasishth Srivastava, the mayor’s chief of staff.
Staff writers Christine Dempsey, Steven Goode, Dave Owens and Don Stacom contributed to this story.
Nicholas Rondinone can be reached at nrondinone@courant.com. Alex Putterman can be reached at aputterman@courant.com. Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com.
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