More Than 30 Percent of Manchester Still Without Power Friday

Even as the percentage of homes and businesses without power in town Friday remained above 30 percent, town officials began to make preparations for debris cleanup and to transition the emergency shelter back to its original location.

General Manager Scott Shanley said that 145 people stayed at the temporary emergency shelter at Manchester High School Thursday night, including 35 East Hartford residents, but that the town was hopeful that as more and more homes saw power restored over the weekend the number of residents who required shelter would continue to decline. Shanley said the town was hopeful that it could close the shelter at the high school by 10 a.m. Saturday morning and move the shelter back to the Manchester Senior Center, its original location.

Although Shanley said that because of the severity of damage in some areas of town and people who required medical treatment, some residents in town could still require shelter for several more days.

“We’ll take it one step at a time,” he said. “The first thing we need to do is say, ‘hey, we need to have the high school back.”

As of 8 p.m. Friday, 9,368 out of 28,644 CL&P customers in Manchester, or roughly 32 percent, were still without power.

CL&P President Jeff Butler again reiterated his assertion Friday evening that the utility would be able to restore 99 percent of its customers statewide by midnight Sunday. More than 831,000 CL&P customers lost power as a result of last weekend’s rare winter snowstorm. Click here to see CL&P’s full outage map.

Tim Becker, Manchester’s Republican Registrar of Voters, said the town would also hold municipal elections as planned Tuesday and that all polling places should be ready by that date. Shanley said Martin Elementary School was the only school in town that remained without power Friday.

The town will also begin to collect debris from the storm on Monday, which will take the place of its scheduled leaf collection service for the immediate future.

“As a practical matter, the timing four days before we were to begin vacuuming couldn’t be worse. Our priority has to be the debris,” said Shanley. “The public and the Board have been clear. And we can’t delay at all. We will spend the next couple of months dealing with the bulk, addressing the hundreds of dangling limbs and damage on public property. We will provide for multiple passes for debris for folks unable to get it to the curb right away. We are going to try to beat the snow. I don’t see how we can vacuum the town afterward this year. We have to deal with what’s in front of us and that will take time. We will have to handle leaves differently this year.”

The town is asking residents with debris that needs to be collected to observe the following collection procedures:

• The vegetative debris should not be more than 20 feet in length, with the cut, or butt, ends facing the street.
• The debris must be kept off of the edge of the street pavement or, where there are curbs and sidewalks, behind the sidewalk. The location of the debris is important because we must leave room to place snow during the time we are removing debris and for the safety of students walking to school or using the bus. 

Please do not:

• Place debris in the street.
• Allow debris to protrude into the street.
• Obstruct sidewalks with debris.
• Pile debris so that it impairs visibility for drivers or pedestrians.

After the large debris is removed, remaining debris less than four (4”) inches in diameter and four (4’) feet in length should continue to be bundled and tied. This will be picked up on your regular trash collection day through January 15, 2012.

The Town will make a second debris collection pass through Town. The schedule for the second pass will be announced at a later date.