Community Corner

Hundreds Lose Power in Durham as Hurricane Sandy Intensifies

The hurricane officially made landfall shortly after 6 p.m. in New Jersey and conditions worsened into the night.

 

Durham escaped most of the day unscathed, but as wind from Hurricane Sandy strengthened Monday evening about 900 customers lost power.

As of 7 p.m. about a quarter of the town was without power, according to Connecticut Light and Power's outage map.

Find out what's happening in Durham-Middlefieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In Middlefield, about a hundred customers lost power when a tree toppled by the wind knocked down power lines on Main Street. By 7 p.m. the number of outages had grown to 383.

Find out where some of the outages are on Patch's Facebook page

Find out what's happening in Durham-Middlefieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

With the worst of the storm expected to begin late Monday night, both towns continue to operate their Emergency Operations Centers. CL&P crews arrived Monday morning to respond to downed wires and power outages but it's likely that most of the power outages will not be restored until Tuesday, at the earliest, due to the worsening conditions.

Power crews will work until about midnight, according to Lisa Davenport, the company's liason in Durham, before starting early Tuesday morning on restoration efforts.

Hurricane Sandy is expected to wind down late Tuesday and so far shoreline areas of the state have been hit much harder than inland areas.

100 percent of CL&P customers in nearby Killingworth, Clinton and East Haddam were without power Monday night.

Durham Town Hall and Middlefield Town Hall will remain open on Tuesday with limited staff. A storm update will be provided at 10 a.m.


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