The outage rate in Brookfield has dropped slightly since this morning, from the 88 percent since Saturday night down to 76 percent as of 3:30 p.m., with power returned to approximately 1,000 customers. However, with almost 6,000 residents and businesses still without power, including the school buildings, school administrators decided Tuesday to close schools for the week.

Though Brookfield High School (BHS) does not have public power, the building is acting as the town’s emergency shelter, running on generators. Residents in need can find cots and a warm place to spend the night, as well as food, water and showers. (Please bring your own blankets, pillows, towels and soap.)

Residents can also find heat and power to charge their electronic devices at Town Hall, the Senior Center and the YMCA, where they can also use the showers, and at Golf Quest, where the owners are offering their outlets, TV and internet through the outage.

(Seniors and others who need transportation to the Senior Center or emergency shelter should call 203-775-5308 for a ride between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.)

The library plans to reopen at 10 a.m. Wednesday, with heat, electricity and potable water, though they may not have reliable internet access by the morning.

Water is also available at the firehouses and police department. (Bring your own containers.)

Full restoration will take more than a week, but line crews were working to restore Federal Road Tuesday, which is expected to come back online by the evening. Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P) crews were also in Brookfield working with town crews to safely clear roads, though this effort is expected to take some time as well.

CL&P President Jeffrey Butler announced Tuesday that residents should be able to check the status on when power will be back by Wednesday.

“By tomorrow morning we intend to have all 149 towns in our service territory with projections of when 99 percent of their power will be restored,” Butler said.

CL&P has already placed a list of 50 towns in Connecticut with projections on when they will be 99 percent restored on their website, however Brookfield is not yet on the list. Most are in the eastern and southwestern parts of the state, which are the areas that were less affected by the snowstorm.

Butler said 48,000 customers have been restored statewide, leaving just over 672,000 customers still in the dark in most towns throughout the state. The power company president said CL&P made “good progress" with restoration on Monday, and it has 770 crews actively working on the ground to remove downed lines and trees and get towns back on the grid.

Butler said that he understood the public’s frustration with the fact that power hasn’t been restored yet — some communities in the state are still at 100 percent without power — but added that he was also “extremely frustrated” with the situation.

“To go through two record events in two months, it’s something I haven’t dealt with in my career,” Butler said. “We’re here to serve customers and to have a large number of customers out for an extended period of time is something that has frustrated us as well.”