CL&P Says More Than 200,000 Still Without Power

Time appeared to be running short for Connecticut Light & Power as it released a statement Saturday morning that more than 214,000 of its customers still remained without power from last weekend's freak October snowstorm. 

But the utility said it was sticking to its goal of 99 percent restoration for all of its customers by midnight Sunday, even as some towns still had high percentages of outages Saturday. CL&P said it had more than 2,140 line and tree crews working on the restoration efforts throughout the state Saturday and more than 200 services crews working to attach service wires, the lines that run from a utility pole to a home. 

"The goal has not changed for the nearly 6,000 people involved in the restoration work," CL&P President Jeff Butler said in a statement Saturday. "There is still plenty to do. We're rebuilding entire parts of the system. I am confident we have the resources to get 99 percent of all customers back on by Sunday night." 

CL&P has said it will waive late fees for customers and is willing to arrange flexible payment programs for customers who experienced "unprecedented losses and disruptions to their lives" due to the prolonged outages. More than 831,000 CL&P customers lost power during last weekend's storm. 

As of 12:15 p.m. Saturday, 203,970 CL&P customers throughout the state remained without power. While some areas have seen a steady decline in the rate of outages since last weekend – Manchester stood at 26 percent outages Saturday afternoon, down from a peak of 96 percent last weekend – other nearby communities still have a majority of homes and businesses without power, casting doubt on CL&P's restoration estimates. Simsbury was still at 73 percent without power Saturday afternoon, Farmington at 71 percent, and West Hartford at 60 percent. Click here to see CL&P's full outage map. 

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