CL&P Crews Working to Restore Power in Durham, Middlefield

Connecticut Light and Power crews worked well into the night in Durham and Middlefield in an effort to restore power to customers still without electricity as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

By midnight Tuesday, 359 customers in Middlefield and 140 customers in Durham were still in the dark, according to the company's outage map.

Across Connecticut, 376,499 CL&P and United Illuminating customers remained without power 24 hours after the worst of the storm hit, including East Lymen where 99 percent of customers remained in total darkness.

"We got a lot of work done [Tuesday], even though the numbers didn't move so we are poised [Wednesday] to see some movement," said First Selectman Laura Francis.

CL&P has not provided either town, or any town in the state for that matter, with a prediction of when power will be fully restored.

In Durham heights, crews were busy Tuesday afternoon repairing a power pole that snapped when a tree came crashing down along Edwards Road during the storm.

"There's other muncipalities in a lot worse shape than we are," said Durham Public Works Director Kurt Bober.

In Middlefield, a CL&P crew cut down a tree that fell on power lines and knocked out power along Lyman Road, as well as to homes along Powder Hill Road in both towns.

During a 5 p.m. briefing, Middlefield First Selectman Jon Brayshaw requested that CL&P workers focus on damage along Jackson Hill Road, including School Street and Maryland Drive.

"That's probably a third of [Middlefield's outages]," he said.

One piece of good news for the towns: schools will be open today. The decision was made Tuesday afternoon after emergency officials made sure that all roads in the two towns were passable by school buses.

Officials have decided not to open the emergency shelter at Coginchaug High School, in part because a regional shelter is being made available at Haddam Killingworth Middle School and because so few outages resulted from the storm.

Officials plan to meet again on this morning to give an update on restoration efforts.