Power outages plague Conn. for 8th day

Joyce and Bob Mercik of Enfield, Conn., walk under the snapped utility pole that leans over the road on Friday, Nov. 4, 2011 in Enfield. / AP Photo/The Journal Inquirer, Leslloyd F. Alleyne

HARTFORD, Conn. - The head of Connecticut's largest utility said it will get close to its goal of restoring power to 99 percent of its customers Sunday, eight days after a rare October snowstorm battered the region.

Connecticut Light & Power President Jeffrey Butler said they understand residents' frustration and are working as quickly and safely as possible.

The utility's projections Sunday say the last restorations could occur as late as Wednesday.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said he has been skeptical for days of CL&P's goal of 99 percent restoration by midnight Sunday. He says Connecticut is preserving its legal options, but that it was too soon to say if any basis might exist for court action.

The outages were the legacy of a storm that cut power that hit the Northeast last weekend, coated trees with heavy snow, and brought down limbs and power lines in several states.

More than three million customers lost power, with more than 830,000 in Connecticut alone. More than 114,000 in the state remained without power Sunday.

A week after storm, 230K still without power

41 Photos

Rare Oct. snowstorm hits Northeast

About 4,000 New Jersey utility customers remain without electricity. But officials say all of them should have their power restored by Sunday night at the latest.

Roughly 3,900 Jersey Central Power & Light customers were still without service as of late Sunday morning.

PSE&G and Orange and Rockland said nearly all their customers had their power back by midnight Saturday.

In recent days, all three utilities have been repairing a large number of single lines from poles to homes and businesses.

At the storm's peak, about 700,000 customers were without power in New Jersey

Officials at Western Massachusetts Electric Co. said they expect to restore service soon to about 4,400

customers whose power has been off since last weekend's snowstorm.

The company says the remaining outages are in the Springfield area, and are expected to be restored Sunday. Almost all of its Franklin and Hampshire counties' customers were back online Sunday.

[badskpr1]

Because of the Bush administration, the national guard or the 104 Connecticut Iron Grays are either in Afghanistan or sixty years old. Fighting with the Narraganset Indians over a smoke shop decimated that tribe from join the Rhode Island National Guard. The Super committee now is imposing higher taxes and $260 a year for Tri Care which affects all of the returning and war injured veterans. Universities are not admitting current guard members until the get out because of deployments. Now you know the the Paul Harvey of why there are no national guard seen in these pictures. Maybe in the January New Hampshire primary we should voice where is our National Guard.

[ddglover24]

Why did not the Governor suspend the requirement for CL&P to hire only union to help remove trees. He has the power but he appears to do only things that support the unions and not the people of CT. It is a fact that several tree removal people in Avon offered their help to CL&P but were told that they could only hire union people. The Governor did not act in the best interest of the people of CT when he did not take action to help clean up this sorry situation.

[erasmus111]

Does anyone know what they are doing over there?

[MarkGoldes]

This is a small taste of what can happen in a solar superstorm.

See the Aesop Institute website to understand why - and how the worst might be prevented.