Lights On For Some, 'No End In Sight' For Others In Fairfield

FAIRFIELD, CT — The storm was almost over when the tree fell.

“Suddenly, there was this, just, burst of really violent, intense wind,” said Tim Twining, a Fairfield resident on his fourth day without power Friday, after a tree across the street from his New England Avenue home took out the electricity Tuesday during Tropical Storm Isaias.

Branches and wires lay tangled in the street and the road was closed off with police tape. Twining had attempted to contact the United Illuminating Co. to get a sense of when power would return, he said, but had not heard back.

“There’s no end in sight,” he said.

As of early Saturday morning, Fairfield had the highest number of UI outages in the area by far, despite progress Friday. At about 3 a.m. Saturday, 6,121 UI customers in Fairfield — or 25 percent — were without power, according to the company, a notable decrease compared to the 41 percent who were powerless 24 hours earlier. The number of customers experiencing an outage peaked above 60 percent Tuesday before holding steady around 50 percent for roughly two days.

There were signs of headway Friday in town. A UI crew was working on an outage near Brittany Bychkowski’s Black Rock Turnpike home.

A tree from a neighboring residential complex had fallen on Bychkowski’s porch.

“This is the third time that something’s happened,” she said, adding she’s concerned in the future a tree will hit the house directly and cause even more damage.

Without power, Bychkowski worried about how the heat could affect her mother and her English bulldog, who has breathing issues.

“He’s huffing and puffing,” she said.

Both Bychkowski and her house guest, Ashlee Benway, were glad UI was on the scene and said the crew had been helpful.

The utility company was working Friday to fix outages on Black Rock Turnpike, Commerce Drive, Crestwood Road and the Unquowa area, First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said in an email to residents. An additional 10 crews were sent to the Hawthorne Substation, along with the National Guard. Combined, the efforts were expected to restore power for about 6,000 customers.

UI estimated the vast majority of Fairfield residents would have electricity by Saturday night, according to Kupchick, but the first selectwoman speculated widespread restoration might not happen until Sunday. For about 500 homes in smaller outage areas, a fix will take even longer, as late as Tuesday.

“I know that it's frustrating to be without power for this long, especially after everything else we have been through during the pandemic,” Kupchick said in the email. “Please know that I am doing everything in my power to get our town back up and running safely.”

A food and ice drive to help residents affected by both the storm and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will take place 10 a.m. to noon Saturday in front of Henry C. Reid & Son Jewelers, 1551 Post Road.

In addition to the outages, many streets were still closed Friday in town. As of about 4 p.m., 20 roads were fully blocked, down from 90 Thursday morning and the more than 100 that were impassable at the height of the storm. Another 239 roads were partially blocked Friday. Hundreds of trees were uprooted.