Monday Night Storm Update from First Selectman Tom Frenaye

CL&P made considerable progress on restoring power today, and as of 8 p.m. the number of CL&P customers in town without power is 321, or 5 percent of the town. The areas most impacted are the Overhill Drive area, and the Griffin and Lake Road neighborhoods around the Congamond Lakes. There are also plenty of single residences with power yet to be restored.

CL&P did have a large number of repair crews in town today, perhaps over 50 trucks. CL&P revised their timetable for restoration again today, and they are not meeting the 99% restored mark promised for tonight. They still estimate 100% restoration by midnight on Wednesday.

The Emergency Operations Center telephone is being discontinued so any non-emergency calls can be directed to the Selectmen's office at 860-668-3838. 

The emergency shelter at Suffield High School has been closed.  Suffield schools will be reopening on Tuesday.

The town is arranging for curbside brush and tree pickup under Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) debris collection guidelines. The Board of Selectmen and Finance unanimously voted to approve going forward with the program tonight. FEMA will reimburse the town for at least 75 percent of the expense for the program (and for other disaster support activities we have incurred since the storm started on October 29.).  Specific information will be distributed in a few days.

This may be the last update reporting on power restoration effort by CL&P and town efforts to support the many people who were without power for so many days (my own power just came on late last night).  

We did run into many issues in trying to get the word out about options available to those without power.  Some people received information by e-mail, some by visiting the town Web site and some by automated telephone calls. Many never received any of the messages at all.

You can sign up for town emergency messages by following this link (also on the town Web site home page): http://www.suffieldtownhall.com/alert  You can choose to add cell phones, pagers, email addresses, and work phone numbers to the town alert system.

In addition, the mailing list used to send out announcements of meeting agendas and copies of meeting minutes is also used for informational messages like this one. You can sign up for them here: http://www.suffieldtownhall.com/content/71/5951.aspx  There are some additional newsletters available from links on the town Web site home page.

Tom Frenaye

First Selectman