As of noon, 9,800 — 78 percent — of Westport’s Eversource customers remained without power. There is no indication when restoration will be complete.
The number of impassable roads is 14. The Department of Public Works expects all to be passable by tomorrow. At that point, DPW will work on the roads with hanging trees or other obstructions. After that, they’ll embark on a thorough town clean-up.
Westporters (and Norwalkers) worry about this situation on Post Road West. The lines are drooping lower by the hour. As soon as blocked roads are cleared, crews will take care of this — and a similar very visible situation on Avery Place. (Photo/Diane Lowman)
He was the Hero of Superstorm Sandy. Not to mention many other natural disasters — blizzards, wind storms, locust plagues — that have befallen Westport in the past decade.
Now Nate Gibbons is back, as wise and informative as ever.
The fire inspector can be heard on a continuous loop on WWPT-FM (90.3), the Staples High School radio station. He offers an astonishing array of information: what’s opened and closed, where to charge your devices, how to keep safe while using generators and extension cords, the latest on the Longshore golf course, and hundreds of life hacks.
And he does it all in a folksy, comforting voice combining the best of Brian Lehrer, Garrison Keillor and FDR.
There’s not much good about our current weather crisis. But Nate Gibbons makes it almost bearable.
Nate Gibbons
Les Dinkin was at Compo Beach today. He noticed:
- It’s very empty. Sure, it’s a beautiful August Saturday. But most Westporters have a few other things to do right now.
- A reminder about remembering all the things we take for granted. As someone whose power came back about half an hour ago, I could not agree more.
- Trees and bushes in the Compo neighborhood look very brown. Les wonders if it’s from the wind. Or perhaps salt water from the storm?
(Photo/Les Dinkin)
Jeff Seaver sends along this message from John Dulligan, government liaison for Altice, the parent company of Optimum. Suffice it to say, Jeff is not impressed:
As you probably know, this storm caused widespread damage. The vast majority of the service-related issues for our customers relate to commercial power impacts. To the extent that there are impacts on our plant due to the storm, we need to ensure the situations are safe prior to proceeding. We are working as fast as we can to restore services if the outage is not related to loss of commercial power. There can certainly be scenarios where power dips (on then off) which is typically the result of our services coming on and dropping again.
And finally … let’s update Sam Cooke’s 1963 classic with the words: “Another Saturday night, and I ain’t got no power …”
This information is stale. As of 2:30 Eversource is reporting less than 62% outage in Westport. Significant progress is being made.
5 days after a storm and we are at 62% outage in Westport. I would NOT consider that “considerable progress”. I would call it what it is – utterly unacceptable.
The CEO will make close to $20MM this year and his stock is close to an all time high. He was rewarded with a $3MM bonus just a few months ago.
We need our political class to shift the debate significantly here. Their stock is at an all time high and their infrastructure plans are “cheap”. Put in proper long term solution in CT. It will cost a little more, but time to reward your customers not your shareholders.
The CEO might want to consider his position and returning some of those $s back to his customers.
Add that to the fact 40% of lineman have been lost , due to retirement or buy outs. This is criminal in my view and these CEO’S are no better than a street gang.
Sorry, Joanne, for the “stale” news.
I didn’t mean to be critical. I was just trying to cheer people up my mentioning that power is (slowly but surely) coming back on…
By the way, Eversource just posted their town-by-town estimate on their website. They still have us at by 11:59pm Tuesday night…
Fantastic that some are finally getting power. Some have said you can’t make this stuff up! We shall persevere..
Please write that the absentee ballots do not state Covid-19 health concerns as a valid reason to vote absentee. I believe this is incorrect and should be brought to Governor Lamont’s attention ASAP.
Craig S Stern
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You are 100% wrong. There is a COVID-19 option on the ballot, I checked it off myself. Please stop spreading lies.
WE HAVE POWER BACK on Post Road East! (Sakura towards downtown, not sure how far). got it back around 6:05pm
Nate Gibbons was technical director for Cablevision of Connecticut’s two live broadcasts on Channel 12 when the company was awarded the Fairfield County franchise. He brought me on as an intern; I was hired within 6 months. Thank you Nate, you’re a great guy.
A large crew from Holland Electrical Services (Alberta, Canada) traveled through Norwalk US RT 1 to Westport to take care of the huge tree leaning on the power and communication lines near the Academy of Dance. There’s one lane of alternating traffic that have flagmen.
As I continued the drive along US RT 1, I noticed large sections of US RT 1 with power some not…
Traffic light intersections out which people NEED TO STOP AT and TREAT LIKE A FOUR WAY STOP INTERSECTION.
What is wrong with people. You see someone stop you STOP! DO NOT DRIVE AROUND THEM and look at them like they’re crazy. YOU’RE the ones not pay attention to the intersections!!
Intersections still out Whole Foods, Kings Highway North (golf course), Sylvan Ave, Kings Highway South, Lincoln St
Rt 33 Riverside Ave, West Parish, Church St, Morningside Drive, Turkey Hill Rd also along Riverside Ave lights out at Treadwell (police used spray paint to write STOP on the sign) and I-95 on ramp southbound.
Nate Gibbons can add to his radio broadcast….
🚦🚦how to proceed through a dark traffic light intersection 🚥🚥
I just read an article about lack of restoration of power in New Jersey.
JCP&L, which was bought out by First Energy Ohio, is slow to response to the many outages and they’re gathering as many linemen as they can to come help.
Everyone is at the mercy of the big corporations….