Falling Trees Displace Fairfield Residents; Mass Outages Continue

FAIRFIELD, CT — As thousands of Fairfielders finished their second day without power following Tropical Storm Isaia, a handful of town residents were missing something even more vital than electricity: their homes.

Roughly 50 houses were hit by falling trees from Tuesday’s storm, and at least three homes were left uninhabitable, according to Fairfield Fire Department Lt. Robert Smith. Additionally, a number of residences had significant damage from trees.

“They were spread out all over town,” Smith said.

Road closures

More than 80 roads remained impassable as of 7:45 p.m. Wednesday due to downed trees and wire, according to Smith. Traffic lights were out at many busy intersections in town as of 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, police said in a tweet. Roads with outages included: Post Road, North Benson Road, Black Rock Turnpike, Kings Highway East, Kings Highway Cutoff, Stratfield Road, Tunxis Hill Road, Easton Turnpike and Fairfield Woods Road.

Injury

Smith also provided an update Wednesday on the lone person injured in Fairfield in connection with the storm. The driver of a vehicle hit by a tree while traveling on the Merritt Parkway suffered life-threatening injuries to the lower extremities, Smith said.

Outages

As of about 3:15 a.m. Thursday, just over 50 percent of United Illuminating Co. customers in Fairfield — or 12,304 customers — remained without power, according to the company’s outage map, a minimal difference compared to the 54 percent of customers experiencing outages 24 hours earlier.

First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick signed a disaster declaration Wednesday after surveying storm damage. Kupchick expressed frustration about the lack of progress restoring power.

“Our crews are working very hard but are limited in what they can do without UI's cooperation,” she said in a Facebook post about 8 p.m. Wednesday.

The utility company had not been coordinating with the town public works department as it had in the past, Kupchick said, although she was hopeful the situation would improve Thursday.

As for when electricity might return, Smith expected it would take about another day to fix the outages.

“The vast majority of people are going to be out for a little bit longer,” he said.

For information about specific outages, visit bit.ly/39SDtig. For storm-related assistance that is not an emergency, call 203-254-4800. For storm information, visit fairfieldct.org/storm.