Most In Fairfield Will Have Power By Late Saturday: Kupchick

FAIRFIELD, CT — The widespread outages caused by Tropical Storm Isaias, which have left Fairfielders in the dark for days, are expected to continue into the weekend.

As of about 3:30 a.m. Friday, 41 percent of United Illuminating Co. customers in Fairfield — or 10,022 customers — were experiencing an outage, according to the company's outage map. The number of customers without power peaked at more than 60 percent Tuesday, and held steady at roughly 50 percent for about two days before beginning to decrease.

The vast majority of Fairfield residents will have power restored by Saturday night, according to First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick, citing information provided by UI. About 500 homes in smaller outage areas could be without power as late as Tuesday. Additional UI crews were en route to Fairfield on Thursday night.

“Fairfield experienced an overwhelming amount of damage,” Kupchick said in a Facebook post about 7:30 p.m. Thursday. “… the damage is widespread with hundreds of trees down all throughout the town.”

Kupchick signed a disaster declaration Wednesday. As of Thursday evening, 287 roads were partially blocked and 64 were fully blocked, down from 92 Thursday morning. Many traffic lights were out as well, according to Fairfield police.

Roads that remained closed Thursday night were a result of potential live wires, Fairfield Fire Department Lt. Robert Smith said. In instances of storm damage where wires are involved, public works employees must wait for a UI make-safe crew to confirm the wires aren’t live before clearing the road. There were two make-safe crews in town Thursday, traveling from site to site.

“They’ve got to go systematically through all of those one at a time,” Smith said.

The public works department worked through the night Wednesday and planned to do so Thursday as well, Smith said about 8 p.m. Thursday.

“It’s not the town DPW that’s holding anything up,” he said.

While residents wait for their power to return, charging stations are available at the senior center, police department, parks and recreation building, Black Rock Church, and all five fire stations. The Fairfield police mobile command post is stationed in the Old Navy parking lot at 2215 Black Rock Turnpike and is providing bottled water, internet and charging power. The post will be staffed 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Residents in need of a place to shower are asked to call 203-256-3191 to schedule an appointment to use the parks and recreation facilities.