Unions: CL&P delayed restoring power

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) - Gov. Jodi Rell is launching an investigation into claims that Connecticut Light & Power delayed their response when it came to repairing lines following last weekend's storm.

Power was knocked out to about 110,000 CL&P customers, with Fairfield County being hardest hit. As of Tuesday, there were still about 40,000 outages.

Labor union officials claim that CL&P set a schedule for linesmen Saturday and Sunday that avoided a higher double time pay rate and delayed power restoration to some customers. One union official says only 25 percent of workers were allowed to work overnight.

A CL&P spokesman denied the allegations.

Municipal leaders also claim that they had a hard time getting in touch with the utility company and that they saw crews on the job in the first two days of the storm.

"This was a huge storm that did serious damage - miles of wire and dozens of utility poles were affected," Governor Rell said in a written statement. "And it is flatly unacceptable for a fire or police official to be unable to reach a 'real person' at a utility company in the middle of an emergency. We need to know what went wrong, why it happened and how to keep it from happening again."

Gov. Rell says she has asked the DPUC to investigate CL&P and United Illuminating.