Almost one year after one of the most devastating storms in state history, Berlin’s Connecticut Light & Power is prepping for power outages and other emergencies if Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in Connecticut on Tuesday.
“If the storm hits, there will most likely be outages, but we are prepared to respond,” CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross said. “We are closely monitoring forecasts.”
Sandy was just south of the Bahamas late Thursday morning. The 11 a.m. forecast from the National Hurricane Center said the storm could make landfall in or around Connecticut late Tuesday morning or early afternoon. The forecast said Sandy will come into the Northeast as a less powerful tropical storm.
Both CL&P and New Haven electric utility United Illuminating have opened their emergency operations centers, preparing to gather storm and outage data and communicate with local officials.
“We are ready to have an all-hands-on-deck effort if the storm hits,” UI spokesman Michael West said.
The paths of hurricanes are difficult to predict more than a day or two in advance, and the forecasts can vary greatly as the National Hurricane Center revises them every three hours.
“We are closely monitoring the forecasts,” Gross said.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy advised all of Connecticut to be on watch for the storm and for business and residents to prepare as necessary.
“Just as the state is monitoring and preparing, the public should do the same,” Malloy said. “Some models predict that Sandy may move onshore somewhere in New England early next week. Although we are not certain the storm will impact the state, we need to be prepared. That means everyone, especially the state’s utility companies.”
CL&P will have a better idea of where the storm is headed in the next 24 hours, Gross said, and will make preparations appropriately.
Last Oct. 29, more than 810,000 CL&P customers lost power when an unusually early snowstorm caused tree branches to break and fall on transmission and distribution lines, and power wasn’t entirely restored for 11 days.
In terms of number of outages, it was the worst event in CL&P’s history, and came two months after 670,000 customers lost power when Tropical Storm Irene made landfall in Connecticut on Aug. 28.
In preparations for Sandy, CL&P already has reached out to mutual assistance organizations to provide extra line and maintenance crews in case of a large-scale power outage. However, the utility hasn’t secured any crews yet because they would have to pay for them.
Also because of the large regional nature of the storms, CL&P doesn’t want to contract with any crews, have Sandy miss Connecticut, impact another area of the East Coast, and leave those impacted regions without enough mutual assistance crews.
“The storm is being closely monitored by everyone on the East Coast,” Gross said.
UI, on the other hand, has already contracted with nearby crews, locking in extra personnel in case the storm hits and mutual aid crews are in short supply during a regional outage
“We figured it was best to secure those contractors now,” West said.
