August 6, 2020
City of New London Approved for Release
Cooling Areas and Electronic Charging stations due to significant power outages throughout the City
The temperatures for the next few days are forecasted to be rain on Friday with Temps. 73 degrees, Saturday 78 degrees and Sunday throughout next week to be in low to mid 80 degrees. At this time our cooling centers (Senior Citizen Center) at 120 Broad Street “Martin Center” will be open and available during the day time business hours Monday thru Friday from 08:00 AM till close of business at 3:30 PM. Citizens requiring the services of the cooling center on this Saturday should go to the New London Public Library at 63 Huntington Street lower level “Community” Room between the hours of 10 AM and 1 PM. The Library “Community” Room will also serve as a cooling center during the week Monday, Wednesday & Friday 10 AM-4 PM and on Tuesday & Thursday 12:00PM till 6PM. Those requiring a cooling center on this Sunday will be able to go to the Senior Citizen Center from 10 AM to 3 PM. Anyone utilizing the services of the cooling centers will be required to wear a facemask and to be socially distanced from others by six feet, masks may be provided upon request.
Those in need of charging electronic devices such as phone, small computers can utilize the services at each cooling center, New London Fire Department’s South Station on Lower Boulevard or at Riverside Park, at either of the 3 remote solar power (light) units located on the promenade at the base of the park at no cost.
Currently the City of New London has 377 customers without power throughout the city, and additional police patrols have been assigned to those areas. The Fire Department and our Emergency Management Team is working with Eversource to ensure that community electrical hazards have been secured. In our ongoing discussions with Eversource they have relayed they have shifted from securing hazards to restoring power, but they can not give a time table for complete restoration in the community.
OVERVIEW FROM EVERSOURCE
- Eversource crews worked through the night making significant progress clearing blocked roads, removing tree damage and restoring power despite the historic storm devastation across the state.
OPERATIONS
- Connecticut electric declared a level 2 Emergency Response Plan (ERP) on Wednesday, August 5, at 11 p.m.
- Eversource continues to bring additional line and tree crews to assist with restoration in the hardest hit areas of the state.
- Staging areas at Danbury Welcome Center, Eversource’s Waterbury Area Work Center and Lake Compounce in Bristol are set up to receiving outside crews and expediting delivery of equipment to locations where repairs are being made.
- Additional crews arrived yesterday, Wednesday, August 5, from Canada, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts to assist with restoration efforts. More crews will be arriving throughout the day.
- The damage from this storm cannot be overstated and our damage assessment is ongoing.
- Though it is early in our assessment, as of 8 a.m., Thursday, August 6, our patrollers identified:
390 broken poles
2,600 downed spans of electrical wire
1,829 trees to be removed
605 blocked roads
142 maged transformers
The Electric and Gas Incident Command Teams will remain activated, throughout the restoration.
- As of 9:15 a.m. Thursday, there are approximately 541,000 customers without service. Power has been restored to 332,811 customers since the storm began Tuesday, August 4 at 11 a.m.
- Given the significant and widespread damage, we are asking customers to prepare for multiple days without power.
- With hundreds of crews and support staff working around the clock, later today, Thursday, August 6, we will provide an estimate of when we expect the vast majority of customers to have power restored.
- We appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding that some restorations may take longer as we work to ensure the safety of our employees and customers during this coronavirus pandemic.
- Customers are asked to keep their distance from crews working in the field — both for pandemic protection and to allow them to focus on their critical work.
- Hundreds of line crews, tree crews, damage assessors, wire-down guards, and community liaisons among others, continue working around-the-clock assisting impacted communities.
- Customers can report and check the status of their outage by calling us at 800-286-2000 or via Eversource.com. For fastest reporting, we ask customers to use the online tool by providing their phone number or account number.
- Operations and Contact Centers are fully-staffed and supporting the restoration process.
- Gas operations has not had any significant impacts but continues to monitor the system. Gas personnel are currently supporting electric response operations.
The City of New London will continue our discussions with the Management of Eversource and every possible update will be shared with the community until this significant matter is resolved.
Anyone that knows of at-risk individuals who would benefit from additional assistance please contact our HELPLINE at 860-437-6394, or online at Helpline@newlondonct.org in any emergency dial 911. We are additionally asking for those areas without power, that neighbors and friends kindly check on each other during this challenging period.
Approved by Mayor Michael E. Passero