It may be days before you have electricity

(WTNH) - Monday Power Update -- 11:00 p.m.

Connecticut Light & Power: Current: 878 --- Peak: 672,000+

United Illuminating: Current: 85 --- Peak:158,000+

Norwich Power: 100% restored

Wallingford Electric: Repairs complete  --- Peak: Approx 9,500

Report outages to CL&P at 1-800-286-2000. CL&P customers text “outage", a space, and your zip code to 24612 to get outage information.

Report Outages to UI at 800-722-5584.

Report Outages to Wallingford Electric at 203-265-5055.

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(Monday 5:00 p.m.) -- The waiting is likely agonizing for the final few thousand homes and businesses waiting to have power back after Irene.

Connecticut Light & Power says it will have more than 1,280 line and 550 tree crews working on Labor Day to restore the remaining customers. The company said last week it expected to have full restoration by Tuesday.

United Illuminating put out a statement Monday saying their remaining outages represent more labor intensive repairs. "While the single service repairs are all that remain for our customers, we will continue to work just as hard and diligently to get the power back on," CEO Jim Torgerson said.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano toured damage from Irene in arguably the hardest hit neighborhood in the state -- the Cosey Beach neighborhood of East Haven.

This past Friday President Obama issued a disaster declaration for all of Connecticut.

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(Sunday 9:15 a.m.) -- Another day on the job for tree and power line crews and they find and reconnect those final few thousand customers who've been without power for a week now.

The Waterford Speedbowl, Brooklyn Fairgrounds and the outlet mall in Westbrook are all being used as staging areas for CL&P's tree/power crews.

Gov, Dannel Malloy is scheduled to visit the towns of Griswold, Montville and Sterling today to talk about Irene, the restoration process and other concerns.

United Illuminating said "UI crews to virtually have all customers back on line by end of today. "

If you're a UI customer you can input your account ID to get an estimated restoration time. Use this link here

CL&P says that as of Sunday, 98% of all customers have had their power restored.

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(Saturday 7:15 a.m.) -- Connecticut Light & Power and United Illuminating say they'll have crews out working all weekend to get your power restored if you're still out.

UIL Chief Executive Officer James P. Torgerson said the company on Saturday was continuing its all-out, day-and-night effort to restore power to virtually all customers before Labor Day.

"For those customers who remain without power, nearly a week after the hurricane, the end is in sight - and I want to personally express my gratitude for their patience during this time of hardship," said James. P. Torgerson, chief executive officer of UIL Holdings.

Bridgeport, New Haven, Fairfield were the three cities with the highest outages for UI in the morning. For CL&P, Guilford and Madison combined have nearly 10,000 outages.CL&P says they'll have more than 1,700 line/tree crews working around the state Saturday. The company says "In some areas, a complete rebuild of the system is necessary."

The damage count from CL&P: 941 broken poles, 3,404 sections of downed wire, 623 broken transformers and 2,045 closed roads.

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(Friday 4:15 p.m.) -- Tens of thousands of people had their power restored Friday and the number of statewide outages from Tropical Storm Irene continues to fall.

Gov. Dannel Malloy said 244 homes have been recognized as destroyed or seriously damaged from the storm.

Connecticut Light & Power President Jeff Butler said the company has more than 1,600 line and tree crews working around the state today, and says the company's goal is to be 99% restored by Monday and fully restored by Wednesday.

Jim Torgerson, president of United Illuminating, said they should have 98% of customers restored on Saturday. He urged any UI customer who did not have power on Sunday to call the UI service center.

Both men said their companies have all the materials, all the resources needed to complete the job.

CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross said on Good Morning Connecticut there are still 639 roads they have to clear before the linemen can get to the wires. "It's been way too long for our customers," Gross said. "We're committed to getting it done."

Gov. Dannel Malloy said the state has received $1 million in emergency funds from the federal Department of Transportation to be used for road and bridge repairs and cleanup.

In his afternoon briefing, the governor said the possible total cost of hurricane insurance deductibles as much as $100 million. They have received waivers from five insurance companies and are looking to get more.

It won't tell you for your street or house, but CL&P has launched a page listing your town and when it estimates 99% of the power will be restored. For example, Stamford: Saturday, 9/3, 4:00 PM. Here is the link.

 

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(Thursday 7:00 p.m.) -- Power is being restored throughout the state, but some folks are still frustrated as they come to the end of day five without power.

Hundreds of power and tree crews will be out restoring service, and working around the clock.

UI said this morning "Our crews will continue to aggressively attack outages until we have restored all of our customers."

Connecticut Light & Power posted a new map to help guide customers to restoration times for its various service areas.

"We are taking all available resources and shifting them to the eastern part of the state," says Katie Blint of CL&P.

. Here's the link.

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(Wednesday 5:15 p.m.) -- Additional power crews from out of state were expected to arrive in Connecticut today to help restore power after Irene. Tens of thousands have seen their power come back today.

Connecticut Light & Power made restoration plans available on their website for residents of Litchfield, Hartford and Northern New Haven Counties. In Eastern Connecticut, the company said it was "establishing additional satellite staging areas in heavily damaged parts of Eastern CT so we can deploy a large number of crews."

Four towns remained completely without power --  Canterbury, Chester, North Stonington and Salem.

Gov. Dannel Malloy visited three towns in Eastern Connecticut today as he continued his survey of storm damage.

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(Tuesday 11:00 p.m.) -- In the first two days following Irene’s impact, CL&P has restored power to over 500,000 customers. However, still over 300,000 customers remain without power, as of 11pm on Tuesday.

“We’ve made good progress today working with the state and towns and realize there’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Jeff Butler, president and chief operating officer, CL&P. “We understand how difficult the loss of power is on all our customers and appreciate their patience. Many of our employees working this restoration are also customers who are returning to homes without power.”

However, full restoration won't come until the middle of next week, said Butler.

Speaking with Gov. Malloy an at afternoon briefing, Butler said they have 900 two-person crews on the ground now, and hope to have 1,200 crews by Friday. United Illuminating has 240 crews working in their service area.

Butler said CL&P hopes to be under 300,000 outages by Wednesday morning, and below 100,000 by the weekend. He expected full restoration will happen on Wednesday of next week.

UI hoped to be down to 10,000 outages by the weekend.

Crews in Connecticut have been joined by workers from other states to get the power back on. CL&P said they have crews flying in today from Seattle and Vancouver B.C. to help.

UI says its assessment crews identified about "1,500 to 2,000 trees in need of clearing, 450 sections of electric wire that needed to be replaced and a minimum of 103 poles in disrepair."

By Friday, CL&P expects to have nearly 1,200 crews working to restore power to customers, making this the largest single contingent of crews in Connecticut history.

 

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(Sunday) -- It's the one question people affected by Tropical Storm Irene want to know -- when will I get power back.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton sent out a short answer to the question Sunday afternoon via Twitter: "For all of you who are wondering, expect no power for 3 to 4 days." The head of Connecticut Light & Power says it could be longer than that.

The storm knocked out power to more than 770,000 customers across the state, the worst power outage ever for a storm. CL&P and United Illuminating were bringing in crews from several other states to help restore power.

As of 9:15 p.m., CL&P reported 660,838 outages. That is 53% of their total customers.

United Illuminating reported 114,313 outages.

Several towns lost 100% power in the storm, including Branford, Colchester, Guilford, Ledyard Ridgefield and Tolland. 

"Now that it is safe for our crews to be out, we're able to mobilize all of our available resources," Jeff Butler, CL&P president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. "At the same time, we continue trying to get additional crews to expedite our efforts."

According to CL&P, crews will be responding to priority calls and cutting the power to downed lines to make areas safe. Then they'll be working to restore power to critical infrastructure first, such as hospitals, police and fire departments, then areas that service the most people.

"The damage from this storm was unprecedented and the restoration process may take a week or longer in some areas," said Butler. "We ask for and appreciate the understanding and patience of our customers during this difficult process."

Crews from as far as Michigan and Florida are heading to Connecticut to remove damaged trees and restore power lines.