About 170,000 CL&P customers have gotten their power restored statewide but some 2,645 Brookfield homes and businesses were still without power as of 4 p.m. Monday, representing 33 percent of the town.
At a press conference earlier in the day, Gov. Dannel Malloy reiterated what he and CL&P officials have been saying for days, that it could take up to a week or more for some customers to get their power back.
“It’s going to take a long period of time… because there’s been extensive damage to the system,” Malloy said. “It’s just not going to be swift, or as swift as we would like it to be.”
Residents can obtain water at the on Silvermine Road and can use on Huckleberry Hill Road to obtain water and use toilet and shower facilities from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The outdoor pool is open until 7:30 p.m. and has water, toilet and shower facilities. Please identify yourself at the front desk.
Always bring your own containers for water.
The town’s Public Works Department and CL&P are continuing to remove trees and restore electric service. They will be working until 11 p.m. Monday night and plan to resume again Tuesday morning.
Irene set a record in Connecticut in terms of power outages. Nearly 770,000 customers lost power, compared with about 477,000 after Hurricane Gloria in 1985.
Power companies, Malloy said, are making hospitals and nursing homes a priority in the power restoration process.
Besides electricity, cell phone service is becoming spotty for many users across the state, the governor said, because some 300 cellular tower sites were damaged by Irene and are beginning to lose their backup battery power supply. He urged residents to limit their cell phone usage to help reserve that power supply until the towers can be repaired.
Cable and Internet service that was knocked out will likely not be restored in most areas until after power comes back on, he added.
His office is currently working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to get a federal disaster declaration for the state, a move that would give the state, businesses and communities access to tens of millions of dollars in federal aid. The state got a pre-landfall declaration, but that money was used to prepare for the storm.
Malloy said he’s also talking with the White House and the Department of Homeland Security to secure federal assistance in getting more utility crews from other states to come here and help.
Later today he will hold a telephone conference call with town and city leaders to update them on efforts to clean up from Irene and to hear their concerns.
With the power outages in some areas expected to drag into the end of the week, Malloy cautioned that residents need to stop eating food from their refrigerators if they have been without power for more than four hours.
And with gasoline supplies running low, he urged residents to use their cars as little as possible.
“We are continuing to ask citizens to minimum usage of their cars until we get all of our oil and gas delivery systems back up and operating,” he said. “Minimize travel if you can.”
