Residents in some Connecticut towns are dealing with severe storm damage after a tornado and severe thunderstorms just a few weeks after Tropical Storm Isaias and the governor has declared a state of emergency to expedite response.
First Alert Chief Meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan said after reviewing the radar data it's clear a tornado did touch down Thursday afternoon. Radar detected tornado debris that was lofted into the air over Bethany and Hamden between 3:55 p.m. and 4 p.m.
The National Weather Service will investigate to determine the path width, length and intensity of the tornado.
On Friday afternoon, Gov. Ned Lamont said he proclaimed a civil preparedness emergency, or state of emergency, in response to the significant damage and declaration authorizes him to order certain actions that will help expedite the response.
The announcement came after he visited some of the hardest hit areas Friday, including North Haven and Branford.
“Yet again, we were hit really heard,” Lamont said during a news conference in North Haven Friday morning.
Immediately after the storms, the governor deployed around 100 personnel from the Connecticut National Guard Response Force and two search and rescue teams to East Haven and Branford to assist in the response and route clearance teams were also sent to North Haven.
“This powerful storm that moved so quickly into our state yesterday evening caused severe damage in certain communities and left thousands without power, just a couple of weeks following similar damage from Tropical Storm Isaias,” Lamont said in a statement. “I remain in consistent communication with town leaders and utility officials so that we can move resources to where they are most needed at this time.”
United Illuminating supplies power to North Haven and the governor said the company has smart meters, which allow the company to see who has power and who does not.
Tony Marone, of United Illuminating. said there is a swath of devastation rather than widespread damage and his crews are working hard to restore power.
They started working Thursday night with the National Guard, which has been clearing roads to make them passible.
Around 29,000 UI customers were out of power and around 13,000 remain out of power on Friday morning.
Marone said they will bring the number of outages down significantly during the day.
There were, however, areas of destruction and they will have to do some rebuilding in the next day or two.
Then Lamont went to Branford, where the governor and Major General Fran Evon, the adjutant general of the Connecticut National Guard, will be meeting with National Guard search and rescue teams in Branford as well as local officials.
"You were hit harder than any other community in this state," Lamont said.
As of 1 p.m., nearly 9,000 Eversource customers in Branford do not have power.
He said there was an emergency declaration to bring in crews from out of state immediately and they are working on getting power back on to all customers.
He called on residents to give utility workers space and show respect and thanks for what the front-line workers are doing.
Lamont said this is becoming a more frequent event after tornadoes three weeks ago.
"We're going to be better and better prepared for a faster response and I'd like to think most of you will be on, almost all of your by the end of today, and certainly by the end of tomorrow," Lamont said. "Here, i made promises for you, Craig, over to you," Lamont said, addressng Eversource.
The storms featured powerful winds, with a gust of 92 mph m in North Haven and 69 mph measured in New Haven.
"We were hit hard but the damage is not nearly as extensive as it was a few weeks ago," Lamont said Thursday evening.
The governor said the storm moved through the areas of Kent, Waterbury, North Haven, Hamden, Branford and Madison, hitting some towns hard and leaving many without power.
"We've got to make sure if these storms are getting more and more frequent our response is getting better and better each time around," the governor said.
He added that the state is watching the response by the power companies. Eversource drew widespread criticism for its handling of Isaias.
POWER OUTAGES
Public safety officials remind residents to always assume downed wires are live and to avoid them.
Eversource held a news conference on Friday morning and said around two dozen towns were impacted by storms Thursday.
As of 12:45 p;.m. Everource is reporting nearly 14,000 customers without power.
Branford was also among the hard-hit, with 89% of customers in town reported out just after the storms moved through. On Friday morning , power remained out for more that 96 percent of town.
By Friday afternoon, power was out to around 53 percent.
Officials said the town is dealing with the second power outage in three weeks and many had no power for a week after Tropical Storm Isaias.
Craig Hallstrom, of Eversource, said crews did a lot of clearing on Thursday night and the company is working closely with the community.
Eversource reported that they were responding to hard-hit areas including Waterbury, Naugatuck, Prospect, and Woodbury.
Branford First Selectman James Cosgrove said crews have been working through the night to open roads, but asked residents to avoid any unnecessary travel not to hinder the restoration process.
He said they are working as quickly as possible to restore power.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he will be watching how well Eversource responds on Branford and he will be going to regulators to demand refunds.
Blumenthal said Eversource has around 380 crews in Connecticut and 80 in Branford.
"I want to know how they're going to restore the power here in the next 24 hours without those crews being here, but I am going to watching, the people of Connecticut are going to be watching, and most importantly. the people of Branford and Connecticut deserve better. They deserve better than we saw in this last storm and they also deserve refunds," Blumenthal said.
He called for reforms, like tying the company's profits to performance.
"What we may well need is a smarter, smaller more responsive utility than Eversource," Blumenthal said.
Hallstrom said that when crews are done in other communities, they will be sent to help in Branford.
He said he understands the frustration and they will work tirelessly to get power back to customers.
Restorations are underway in Branford
Hallstrom said power should be back on for the majority of customers in communities other than Branford by the end of the day.
"And then we'll work continuously to get Branford up and going," he said.
He said the company brought in crews yesterday from their other companies, as well as contractors
Eversource released a statement on Friday afternoon, saying that line and tree crews will substantially complete restoration for all towns in Connecticut by midnight tonight, with the exception of Branford.
United Illuminating is reporting around 13,000 customers out, many in North Haven, North Branford, and Hamden.
PHOTOS: Severe Storms Move Through Connecticut
STORM DAMAGE REPORTS
After the worst of the storms moved through, damage reports began coming in.
In Hamden, police said multiple roads were impassable after the storm.
An NBC Connecticut crew in Hamden said heavy rain and whipping winds moved through quickly. The storm took down trees and some wires. Town officials reported some buildings with roof damage.
"Our Town was hit very hard today, and there was a lot of damage, but I'm very thankful that we do not believe there were any major injuries. Our residents can count on the fact that our Public Safety and first responder crews will be all-hands-on-deck and working through the night, and then as long as it takes to make our streets safe," Mayor Curt Leng said in a statement Thursday night.
Because of the storm damage, Quinnipiac University has canceled all classes on Friday, but said on-campus COVID-19 testing for students, move-in and other student activities will proceed as scheduled.
Quinnipiac officials said the Mount Carmel Campus is on generator power and the North Haven and York Hill campuses are on commercial power.
No buildings were damaged on any of the campuses, but trees did fall.
Whipping winds and heavy rain moved through Hamden Thursday afternoon.
Westport firefighters said they were called to help a driver who got stuck in a vehicle when a power line came down. Firefighters and Eversource crews were able to rescue the driver.
Westport firefighters said they received numerous calls, including reports of trees that came down on houses.
In East Haven, there were reports of tree branches down on multiple vehicles. Video from Bethany showed a box trailer tipped over from the force of the wind.
A tornado touched down in Bethany Thursday night.
In North Haven, the fire department said emergency vehicles could not get to several neighborhoods and streets and asked people to avoid driving to impacted neighborhoods unless they had a legitimate reason to be there.
The department said the first selectman declares a state of emergency on Thursday night.
A tree came through the roof of a home.
North Haven residents are dealing with another wave of devastating storm damages.
Credit: Brett Gagliardi
Ansonia Police said United Illuminating would be shutting down power for several thousands of residents because of a downed tree on a transmission line at the UI substation beginning at 10 p.m. on Thursday.
They said the power outage would affect people living on or around North Main Street up to the Seymour town line and from East Main Street to the Woodbridge town line, police said.
Police said the utility company hopes to restore power as quickly as possible but anticipated at least a two-hour outage.
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