Ketcham: CL&P Response Is 'Unacceptable'

Unacceptable.

That’s how Redding First Selectman Natalie Ketcham categorized Connecticut Light & Power’s response , which she called “unprecedented in the town of Redding and in the state.”

As of Thursday, CL&P said 99 percent of Redding’s power should be restored by Sunday night.

“I will continue to both fight for additional crews and protect the ones we do have before power is fully restored,” she said.

Still, CL&P’s response, as many Redding residents would like agree, hasn’t been acceptable. Ketcham said the town learned a lot regarding how to respond to emergency situations .

“We learned first and foremost that CL&P needed to make significant improvements to its emergency operations plan,” Ketcham said. “After Irene, we provided them with a three-page memo giving 18 specific suggestions for on-the-ground improvements. I know they read it. But they didn’t implement any.”

The town also learned that CERT volunteer efforts are meaningful to residents.

“Our tri-team of emergency management directors — Police Chief Douglas Fuchs, Communications Supervisor Steve Schnell and Public Health Director Doug Hartline — can cover all the vital elements of emergency response: Public safety, communications and citizen health and well-being,” Ketcham said. “However, coming out of this storm, just as Irene, we debriefed [and formulated] and after-action plan, we solicited input from residents and found areas that need to be further refined and improved. That will continue to be the case once we are finished with this ordeal.”

Ketcham said the town relies on a weather forecast service which provides “very reliable” forecasts every four hours. Those forecasts turned out to be inaccurate.

Still, the Highway Department was “ready to go,” Ketcham said.

Ketcham said, as was the case following Irene, “residents are most comfortable in their homes even without power” and that the number of residents at Joel Barlow “absolutely confirms that.” Nine people stayed at Barlow on Monday, two stayed there on Tuesday and eight stayed there on Wendesday, she said.

“It’s clear that our residents prefer to stay at home,” she said. “Our shelters are most popular for showers.”

Redding also participates in a regional sheltering plan, and the Red Cross center in Bethel was available immediately, she said.

“Clearly, residents prefer not to take advantage of it,” she said. “Residents would be distraught if we suggested evacuation, but there was no imminent life safety issues at stake, no major floods or houses on fire.”

Ketcham said the town conducted well-being checks on Redding’s vulnerable citizens in the aftermath of the storm.

“We are continuing on a daily basis to check on seniors individually and personally,” she said. “I have spoken with them on the phone and met with them, took the meals-ready-to-eat and water, offered them opportunity for sheltering. They have confirmed they want to stay home, and we’re doing our best to accommodate their wishes.”

While Chief Fuchs is the head of the police department, he’s also the town’s lead Emergency Director, Ketcham said.

“This is exactly what his role was designed to address,” she said. “He has been the lead with a team of employees, in constant contact, meeting regularly with them.”

Ketcham said her role on the team is to be at town hall, a resource center for Redding residents.

“We have had hundreds and hundreds of citizens come through here to get bottled water, information on outage states, report down trees,” she said. “Being at town hall gives me an opportunity to speak with them personally. I’m in the lobby talking with them and fielding hundreds and hundreds of phone calls.”

Responding to write-in candidate — Ketcham said she doesn't know where Vibbert has been getting her "misinformation."

“To suggest that I should be at the shelter, where there are two citizens … defies explanation to me,” Ketcham said. "If she had been to town hall at all this week, she could have received accurate information to help her understand the complexity of this emergency response, and offered to help our citizen efforts. The other two selectmen, Julia Pemberton and Don Takacs, have been a steady presence here, assisting residents and our CERT team."

Looking forward, Ketcham said she spoke with Gov. Dannel Malloy and CL&P CEO Jeff Butler Thursday morning and insisted that additional crews be added to work on Redding, while making sure crews already in place are not diverted to the Hartford area, where outages were still in the 95 percent range.

“That would be robbing Peter to pay Paul and would be totally unacceptable,” she said.

Ketcham said she’s spoken with State Sen. Toni Boucher about potential legislative records to address and change the way energy is distributed in the state. She also said more manpower needs to be accessible for future emergencies.

“CL&P cut their number of crews in half years ago, and the state clearly needs to rectify this going forward,” she said.