Power Company Plans for Tons of Outages as Impact of Tropical Storm Henri Looms Over Danbury Area
With the National Weather service issuing hazardous weather outlooks and, in some cases, hurricane warnings throughout Connecticut for this weekend, Eversource, the state's primary energy provider, says they're are taking many steps to be prepared for the outages and damage that could potentially be sustained due to the pending impact of Tropical Storm Henri.
As of this writing, the NWS says that Connecticut, and the Greater Danbury area in particular, should be prepared for severe storm conditions forecasted to begin on Sunday morning (August 22), as the result of Tropical Storm Henri.
In addition to that, the National Hurricane Center predicts that Henri will in fact strengthen, and is soon to be categorized as a hurricane:
In a press conference on Friday, President/CEO of Eversource Joe Nolan explained that with the storm now being categorized as a level 3 weather event, which he says "means that up to 49% of Eversource customers could be without power for up to 10 days."
Nolan went on to discuss the preparation measures Eversource is taking in the face of Henri, saying, "We have everybody all hands on deck. I've cancelled all vacations, so everybody is here working, and we'll continue working until everybody is back on."
"I've also reached out to my peers in the industry and we have crews coming in from all over the country," the Eversource exec added. "We are going to have all of the resources that we need to bring to bear on this storm." From there, Nolan explained that the company is looking to prepare a record-breaking response team of nearly 4,000 crews, made up of both line crews and tree crews.
Joe Nolan further explained that even though Eversource is focused on potential outages throughout the affect area, his primary concern is potential tree damage as a result of the storm. He says that tree crews are currently working around Connecticut with a heightened focus on the removal and trimming of trees that could be hazardous once the storm hits.