New Haven fared better than expected, mayor says

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- New Haven Mayor John DeStefano says the conditions in the city from Sandy are better than expected but bad enough, and he is encouraging people to allow emergency responders to do their jobs.

As of noon New Haven looked like this:

• About 10 percent of city customers are without power
• 107 streets are blocked or partially blocked
• 195 trees are down
• 172 downed wires

Those downed wires are making it a safety risk for people and limiting the ability to move around New Haven. And there are also traffic signals out.

"There are lots of live wires, lots of dangling limbs, lots of streets that are impassable," Mayor John DeStefano said. "If you don't have to come out please stay home. You're not serving anybody by coming out today.

"This condition is going to persist. We would like it to be all cleaned up and made right in a day or so. That is not going to happen in New Haven or in any other place. So patience on behalf of one another."

The city is working with United Illuminating to get things resolved as quickly as possible.

Beginning Friday, people can leave yard debris for pick up at regularly scheduled refuse pick-ups.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd, spoke about getting federal resources to help Connecticut.

"We had a pre-landfall declaration-emergency declaration assesment.  I'm sure the president is sat this moment signing emergency declarations in all the affected states and Washington, D.C. so that will be forthcoming."

The mayor says they will determine later today whether schools will open Wednesday.
Two schools sustained damage and eight schools are without power.

In regards to Halloween, kids will probably be disppointed to hear this; the mayor says for the safety of everyone concerned he's asking people to bring Halloween inside and perhaps throw your own party. It's really about the power outages and downed wires.